Last year, Portland’s cyclocross scene was one of the biggest in the country. At one Cross Crusade event (Alpenrose) there were 760 competitors, making it the largest event of its kind in the history of U.S. cross racing.
What’s not to like? Whether you watch or ride, it’s really just a big excuse to have fun on bikes.
Here are some signs that cross season is coming:
- Cross bikes and parts are being sold on the OBRA email list.
- Cross bikes are piling up for service at local shops.
- Willamette Blvd. is full of riders doing the Forest Park loop.
- The Alpenrose Cross Clinics are going strong (see below).
- The River City Bicycle ads in the Willamette Week say “1 Week” till ‘cross season!
- This Sunday is the first cyclocross race of the season (check out my report from Hood River last year) and the Cross Crusade kicks off on October 1st!
- Racers are chatting it up on the Cross Crusade Forums
According to racer and Bike Gallery crew member Matt Slaven, the first Cross Clinic had a huge turnout.
“We had about 100 people out there, one of our best turnouts ever. We asked who’d never raced cross before and about 80 of them raised their hands.”
The clinics are brought to you by Team S&M (Sellwood Cycle Repair) and the Cross Crusade. By all reports, these clinics are not to be missed, and to make things even better, Team S&M has just announced they’re raffling away a new Kona “Jake” ‘cross bike at the final clinic on September 27th (yes, there’s only one clinic left!).
Local cyclocross veteran and member of last year’s U.S. World’s team Erik Tonkin is a driving force behind the clinics. Last year I set up a blog for Erik to write about his races. I’m excited to announce that Erik will be sharing his insights with us again this year. I’ll be posting his articles here on BikePortland.org so stay tuned for tips, tricks, and race reports from Erik.
Also in the blogosphere, Portland has a new addition that is sure to please cyclocross fiends. Jeremy Burlingame, the man behind the popular Plus One Lap cyclocross blog has recently moved to Portland so watch for him out at the races.
Last year, I did my first ever cross race out at PIR and it was beyond fun. I strongly recommend checking it out.
Look forward to seeing you at the races!