Gloucester Cyclocross Pictures

I’ve recently been introduced to this insane sport called “Cyclocross”. Those who do it seem to think that it is something like a mix between cycling, motocross, steeplechase and hell. With a little insanity thrown in. Unless of course you’re Ryan Kelly and are generally just a little bit insane to start with.

Anyways, the light of my life decided that she wanted to race Gloucester today (and apparently tomorrow as well), so I tagged along for shits and giggles. What followed was an interesting spectacle of near death experiences liberally sprinkled with expressions of untold pain and suffering. Except for Ryan Kelly who felt like he needed to stick his tongue out when jumping over barriers.

Like this, for example:

Because really, thumbing your nose at barriers is really where it’s at. Booyah! None of these pansy-faced looks of horror for him:

Speaking of horror, just from observing the spectacle today I’ve learned a couple of things. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. In any given cyclocross race the probability of falling is 100%. Unless you’re Tim Johnson or Jonathan Page or some other god-like figure.
2. The muddier the course, the more people seem to like saying things like “yeah, I raced that shit, man. ” to no-one in particular.
3. If there is a hill with a 40% grade on it, you can guarantee that the course designers will find a way to include it:

4. Glasses are for pussies – the more crap that gets into your eyes during a race, the better:

5. And finally, if you finish the race and you can still see some of the original color of your skinsuit, you haven’t tried hard enough:

While learning these lessons, I spent some time wandering around the course taking pictures. You can find them on my gallery, or just click on this link.