(Photos © J. Maus)
This past weekend in Bend was sort of magical. Nearly perfect fall weather mixed with the largest cyclocross race series in the world (in terms of participation) and a lot of Halloween spirit to produce a very memorable Day of the Dead Cyclocross Festival.
The Oregon Bicycle Racing Association says there 1,940 riders over two days — their best Halloween totals ever.
Out on the race course there were two big stories: dust and costumes.
soldier returning from battle
(with dust in this case).
I had heard about Bend’s dusty trails, but after racing in it for two days I can now speak from experience: The stuff is nasty. Saturday’s course took huge packs of racers — 110 or so in my field — right into the thickest dust right at the start. It was so bad I could feel the particles entering my throat when I breathed in and I could barely make out the racers in front of me. Sunday’s course was a bit less dusty, because we started on the grassy side.
All in all, the course was a ton of fun, with swooping corners, the aforementioned dust (which was actually kind of fun if you found the right lines), and of the largest and loudest crowds I’ve seen all year. The Old Mill District venue is also one of the best anywhere. It seems like it was tailor-made to host cyclocross.
Sunday was also costume day! In what has become a very proud Cross Crusade tradition, a vast majority of racers line up dressed up. Some categories had nearly everyone in costume. Each year people show up with more creative, elaborate, and coordinated outfits.
I especially liked the team costumes. There were a bunch of chickens with real feathers that were flying all over the course by days, there was a team of tootsie rolls, an amazing group of mariachi band musicians in Dia de los Muertos makeup, Pac-Man followed menacingly by ghosts, and there was even a full team of Sprockettes (which made me feel less silly for being dressed up like one myself)!
Check out more of the costume craziness in the photos below…
Think you’re a hardcore Ducks fan? Try pedaling this thing for a few laps!
Warriors, come out to play-yay!
The Sorella Forte Women’s Cycling Team showed up as The Sprockettes!
The dust drove many racers completely bananas…
Keeping with the fruit theme… Grapes anyone?
A frog chasing a fly: This woman deserves very high marks for both creativity and execution…
Love this one… Look how her cape is flying and she’s determined to catch the bad guys (or gals in this case)!
Fem-Bot!
A very intricate and detailed Dia de los Muertos outfit…
A little traffic jam near the beer garden…
Extra points for the matching bike…
No comment needed…
This guy really earned the “Best Costume” prize because it was about 60 degrees out and this is a very hot costume…
Tin Man, nicely done…
It’s not easy being green… Or racing cyclocross in a frog costume (nice one Rick!)…
And if you thought the costumes meant people didn’t race hard. Think again…
O.K., O.K., it wasn’t all serious out there. Check out these women racers reaching for a dollar bill someone hung over the course…
And even the race sponsors got into the spirit. Check out Chris King (yes, that Chris King) in a pink “Dunking Gonuts” apron making free, fresh, rainbow-sprinkled donut pancakes.
Big thanks to the Cross Crusade, OBRA, the City of Bend, and everyone that made this a spectacular weekend.
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More coverage:
- Crank My Chain Cycle TV’s excellent video of the Clydesdale night race, the big party, and more
- Amazing and fun photos from Pat Malach, David “BikeRanger” Haines on Oregon Cycling Action (highly recommended photos!).
- A great short video from Russ Roca of PathLessPedaled.
- The always epic images of PDXCross.