(Photo © J. Maus)
Organizers of the the wildly popular Cross Crusade cyclocross race series have announced the dates, venues, and other changes we can expect this coming season.
In a statement, Race Director Brad Ross wrote, “The Knights of the Crusade have been feverishly working to line up race locations and dates that we think will make for the most kick butt season ever.”
The biggest change this year is that the annual Halloween Crusade weekend (October 29-30, now called “Day of the Dead Cyclocross Festival”) is moving from its old haunts just outside Astoria and will take place in Bend. “The City of Bend is throwing out a huge fuzzy welcome mat for us,” says Ross. The course will be the same one used in the last two editions of the U.S. National Cyclcocross Championships and presenting sponsor Deschutes Brewing Co. will host a part on Saturday in their warehouse, which Ross says, “Happens to sit just next to the race venue.”
Also new this year is the first annual Cross Crusade Film Festival. Organizers will accept short films of racing action and then show the best ones at a big festival. Stay tuned for more details on this event.
A race-day schedule change is also worth noting. This year the speediest racers (Men’s/Women’s/Masters A category) will move to a more crowd-friendly 1:00 pm start time and the Category B and Singlespeed racers will move to the 3:15 start time.
Online registration for the races open this Monday (yes this Monday!), August 22nd and the first race is at Alpenrose Velodrome on October 2nd. Check out CrossCrusade.com for more info.
If you can’t wait for the Crusades to start, there’s a new cyclocross series to check out. The Grand Prix Molly Cameron starts on September 3rd at David Douglas High School Park in Vancouver. There are nine races in the series. Check out GPMC.cx to download the event flyer.
See you out there!