LOUISVILLE, Kentucky – To the uninitiated, the Cyclocross World Championship looked like an exercise in insanity, an epic fight against Mother Nature and a long, hard journey through a world of hurt.
That’s because it was.
The world's CX elite operate on a plane several levels beyond, a place where grace and extreme athleticism combine with brutal efficiency. Even among the professionals, though, there is a difference between the contenders and the also-rans.
More Bike Stuff:
Building Sweet Bikes and a 'Business of the Future'
Gear Up For Cycling's New Golden Age
Amazing Ritte Bikes Born From Irrveverence
Frame of Mind: Inside the Art of Building Handmade Bicycles
Everything You Know About Bike Fit Is WrongAnd between the Europeans who invented this crazy sport and the Americans who hosted its championship for the first time ever. We put on one hell of a show this week, but the Dutch and the Belgians made it clear this is their game, bigger in their homelands than even soccer. The rest of us merely try to keep up.
It’s been that way since the first 'cross race, way back in 1902. The beginnings of the sport are as murky as Seattle espresso, but the first race was held for the same reason as the Tour de France: to sell newspapers. From the beginning, CX racers "rode uphill and down dale, over stone walls and through shallow streams." They’re still doing that, but on lightweight carbon fiber bikes that cost more than your first car and look a lot like bikes ridden in the Tour, but with knobby tires and cantilever brakes.
Cyclocross pushes riders to the limit, which makes sense, given that the sport gained popularity among road riders who wanted to train hard through the winter. It requires agility and endurance as riders cover as much distance as they can in one hour, riding a muddy, frozen course littered with roots and rocks and dotted by steeples they leap over.
They do this inches from screaming fans, some of whom are drunk and, here in Louisville, were so excited to witness the madness that they took as souvenirs anything that wasn’t nailed down.
"Crazy Americans accounted for unique atmosphere in Louisville," read the headline on one Belgian sports website.
Indeed. The fans were crazed because they knew the event, held beyond Europe for the first time ever, probably isn’t returning to the States. So they partied like it was 1999, swilling prodigious quantities of beer as they stood ankle-deep in mud, wearing colorful costumes and waving colorful flags.
They saw the best riders fight hammer and tongs even as the snow pack-swollen Ohio River threatened to over run its banks and flood the course. The Dutch and the Belgians thoroughly dominated from the start and increased their lead with every lap. Those struggling to keep up were doused by their own blood and tears, the foam of beers fans hoisted in encouragement and the mud kicked up by the riders in front of them. The grassy mud and coating their bikes and bodies could have been formed into bricks to build their hut of shame.
This is ’cross in America. We throw one hell of a party, the crowd goes wild and we look to the Europeans and say, “Please sir, may I have another” as they kick our asses.
“It’s not like Belgium, but a good effort,” one member of the Belgian contingent said after their man, Sven Nys, won the elite men category. American Logan Owen took fourth in the pro-development category while Katie Compton took second among the women.
Good effort, indeed.
Photos: DL Byron/Wired
