The historic Herne Hill Velodrome hosts the MAAP Summer Cyclocross Series, mixing cyclocross, DJ tracks, pizza, and beer for idyllic, bike-centric summer evenings. Below, Conor Courtney sets the scene for an inclusive racing event in London’s bustling cycling culture. Let’s take a look…
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Tracklocross Worlds 2024: Sometimes the Simplest of Things Is All We Need
While 5,000 die-hard gravel riders were grinding away in Emporia, KS at Unbound, a smaller group of 120 racers gathered at a rodeo ground in Folsom, CA, for an altogether different affair: the 2024 Tracklocross World Championships. For the uninitiated, tracklocross is a throwback to the original cyclocross races of France in the early 1900s. Pro racers would take their fixed gear bikes over hill and dale in unofficial, off-season training races. Modern tracklocross races feature purpose-built fixed gear cyclocross rigs and closed courses instead of the fields and creeks between towns. Don’t miss Erik Mathy’s unique photos from this revitalized Tracklocross Worlds event below…
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Ira Ryan Cycles Shop Visit: Constructeur Moderne
After an eleven-year hiatus, Ira Ryan is back building bicycles under his namesake moniker, Ira Ryan Cycles, in Portland, Oregon. While Josh was visiting the City of Roses earlier this year, he stopped by Ira’s to catch up and check out some new projects. Continue reading below to look inside Ira’s workshop and drool over some of his exquisite recently built bicycles.
Radar
Readers’ Rides: Standert “Stichsäge” Tracklocross Project “Laubsäge”
Sometimes, when we open the Readers’ Rides inbox, we exclaim, “WE GOT A LIVE ONE HERE!” and that certainly is the case with this submission from Peter, who sent in his tracklocross bike made from a Standert “Stichsäge” frame…
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Rutted and Gutted: ‘Cross Returns to Louisville for the 2023 Cyclocross National Championships
Brett Rothmeyer transports us from our desks, our computers, or phones this morning and whisks us away to the 2023 Cyclocross National Championships in Louisville, Kentucky, for an action-packed medium format and 35 mm film gallery full of moments so vivid you can hear them…
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Capturing the Hopeful Side of Washington D.C. on 35 mm
It’s easy to let the 24-hour news cycle negatively color your perspective on the goings-on in the United States’ capital. But, as a Washington, D.C. resident, Andy Karr has gotten a bit tired of the doom-and-gloom rhetoric, and Hollywood’s skewed portrayals of the city he calls home. As a way to open his own aperture, Andy spent the last two summers intentionally documenting the district’s thriving cycling community. As we roll into what will surely be a chaotic election year, take a moment to pause and consider the other side of D.C. in Andy’s wonderful gallery…
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The Rowdy and Irreverent Underworld of RodeoCross
A little weird, a lot welcoming RodeoCross is cyclocross…but only kind of. At the end of this year’s Sacramento season, Kate Rose pays tributes to this rowdy and irreverent subculture of cycling category. Read on for her entertaining recap and sound bytes from racers who try to explain this “disguise for a party on bikes,” along with photos from Sydney Lewis.
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‘Cross is Coming, is Here, and Always Has Been: CX Practice in New York City
In the heart of New York City, where towering skyscrapers cast their imposing shadows, a hidden haven of summer grass, plastic cones, makeshift barriers, and camaraderie emerges every Wednesday evening from late August to early November. Randall’s Island, a patch of green in the midst of New York City’s concrete jungle, becomes an unlikely sanctuary for cyclists of all kinds seeking the ever-so-special and thankfully still alive-and-well discipline called cyclocross.
Continue reading Angelo Calilap‘s account of NYC’s longstanding ‘cross practice hosted by King Kog accompanied by a wonderful image gallery from Andres Cevallos…
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2023 Enve Grodeo and Builder Round-Up Part 2: Sycip, Rock Lobster, Wish One, Moots, Scarab, Quirk, Boredure, Breadwinner, ENVE
Today we are back with part two of Spencer Harding‘s ENVE Grodeo and Builder Round-up coverage. If you missed the builds featured in yesterday’s post, we’d recommend going back and giving them a gander—3D-printed parts (most ti but some steel, too!) seems to be the unofficial theme for the year but there’s plenty to see across the creative spectrum! Today, we finish up with the remaining frame builders in the showcase—with a few more overseas features—then we head out on the weekend’s main event, a 92-mile gravel ride on some of the best dirt in the northern Wasatch Mountains. Let’s dive in!
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SSCXWC 2022 Durango: Where Winners are Losers and Losers are Winners
Here I am again, writing about a World Championships experience. This one is just a touch more debaucherous than the last one I attended in early October. I swapped the UCI regulations for one rule to rule them all: if you win you must get a tattoo. Single Speed Cyclocross World Champs is the not-so-underground, fringe, party event that calls itself a World Champs and, in many ways, it is. But instead of (doing drugs) (marginal gains) that make you faster, you do things that make you slower like keg stands, whiskey shots, and hot dog hand-ups.
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2022 Cyclocross Nationals on Film: Patience Through the Chaos
With my camera bag loaded with several boxes of 120 film and a brick of Ilford HP5, I pulled out of the driveway bound for Hartford, CT; I paused, wondering how I arrived at this moment. All of the little moves and influences resulted in me lugging two cameras with a combined age of some 75 years to shoot the season’s most crucial cyclocross race. There is a “Butterfly Effect” moment in our lives that leads us to our current state, and somewhere amongst the mud, dust, and thousands of shutter actuation is mine.
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Beyond Camaraderie, Between Athletes, Behind the Tape: Cyclocross’ Unsung Hereoes
Amidst the fray of cyclocross athletes regularly pushing themselves to the limit, the unsung heroes of this discipline are churning away behind the scenes. From mechanics and photographers to directors and coaches, the lesser-known faces that keep this crazy sport going are all unique people with their own stories, but not ones you’ll likely hear about in race coverage. So enjoy a glimpse into the world of the people on the outside of the tape – we hope it inspires you to take a walk through the paddock at the next race you attend and look a little closer.
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A Dog’s Day at the 2022 Trek Cyclocross World Cup
Years ago, when I expressed my aspirations to become a cycling photographer, a very talented friend helped me put things into perspective. “Remember,” he said, “What you are trying to achieve is the equivalent of wanting to be an NFL photographer while living in Japan.”
I knew what he was saying was not to discourage me; he had also worked for various cycling outlets over the years, writing and occasionally shooting with well-known names in professional cycling. His frequent flyer miles were piling up, and it was merely a side hustle. “You can do it,” he told me, “but as someone once told me, you must accept living like a dog.”
Radar
Riding into Motherhood with Amanda Chapin
I’m Amanda Chapin – I’m a gravel rider, mountain biker, cyclocross racer, tandem stoker, and sometimes even a roadie – plus I’m a new mom! And what an adventure it has been…
Radar
#crossneverleft: How to Throw a Cyclocross Race
Are you missing cyclocross? Maybe it’s February and you haven’t reached your quota of mud in your eye, or maybe it’s June and doing a gravel race is just 7 hours too long – do they even know what a cowbell is in Kansas? Why rely on your local promoter to line the local park with caution tape when you can easily do the same yourself? Organizing your own race is not only more simple than you think, but a great way to get people together and build community!
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Gold in the Ruts: A Love Letter to Cyclocross
The following is a love letter to Cyclocross and in particular photographing cyclocross. During the 2018-2019 season, I was blessed to attend a few races and got a chance to shoot freely and candidly with no one expecting anything from me but everyone letting me in and close. I had no idea what was about to happen to me, under the lashing rain of Overijse, a small cold flemish town, I fell in love with cycling once again, a way I never expected, cold, easy, mind-blowing and everlasting.
“We get to play like kids in the mud but as adults, what else could be better?” – Rebecca Gross
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Vos is Boss-Pidcock of the Walk at the 2022 Cyclocross World Championships
A strange sensation grips the mind when a long drive begins in the darkness of predawn. The city remains still, holding onto its final few hours of sleep, and the highway remains virtually empty. There is a promise in the loneliness of the opening hours of long highway travel. Exits flutter by in the darkness; distant lights of tractor-trailers and roadside oasis’ are the only possible signs of life beyond the confines of my car. The falling snow has narrowed my concentration to the reflecting lines on the asphalt as I navigate south and west on my way to Fayetteville, Arkansas, for this year’s Cyclocross World Championships.
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My Name is Windy: The Scene at the 2021 CX Nats
Act One: We Can’t Stop Here, This is Nats Country!
In which our anti-hero-TeamLifeLOL-genderwhatever sets the stage with cold takes on Chicago-lite.
What a December it was for The Cyclocross in Chicago. I’ve seen a few different versions of this: rain and sleet off Lake Michigan for Montrose; 60 degrees (and a hot tub at both!), bitter cold and wind at Afterglow; and for USAC CX Nationals in Wheaton, IL, there was a complete fall-to-winter seasonal transition.