The Radavist

Beginning any race with a LeMans start is sure to cause a ruckus, but add in a real life “cycling salmon” and things get interesting. This year’s SSCXWC began with a bang. Both the men’s and women’s field showed that you can truly have fun and still be somewhat competitive. From the snot rocket cannons, to the cesspool pit and even the crowd-induced bottle necked course, the racers had to endure a lot more than they bargained for. Oh and mud in SoCal? The cross gods smiled upon LA last Sunday. See for yourself in the gallery.

This morning, at 6am PST, Rapha has opened up an auction for the new Team Rapha Focus Oakley RadarLock sunglasses. The opening bid is $250, or the retail of the normal RadarLocks and all the proceeds aid in financing the Team Rapha Focus men and women. These sunglasses come with a set of Rapha-etched clear lenses and Rapha-Focus branded carrying bag. You might even get a set of Rapha-Focus trading cards.

Click here for the auction and here for more details. Make sure you follow @Rapha_N_America on Twitter or the Rapha Facebook page to monitor the bids each day. Next week, limited edition Rapha-Focus Frogskins go on the auction block.

These are very sharp shades. See for yourself in the gallery!

It’s hard to deny the impact that the original Ritchey Swiss Cross had on American cyclocross. Any cycling history buff will note Thomas Frischknecht’s many victories in the early 90’s while riding the original, so it had to be a perfect choice for Ritchey to re-introduce the mighty red machine for 2012. Having only seen the bike at Interbike, I was stoked to hear Chris’ choice in picking one up when he wrecked his previous cross bike. Built with mostly matching Ritchey components, this build turned out perfect. Last Sunday, after a Walnut Creek singletrack session, I got some photos of this race-ready machine.

Some of my favorite details are the integrated head tube and that wicked cable routing at the seat tube cluster. Check out more in the Gallery.

Ok, if I asked you what kind of car a Portland-based frame builder would drive to cross races, the last thing you’d guess is an armored truck. You know, the kind that people drop loads of money off to banks with? Yeah, gun openings, plated steel, bullet-proof glass. The whole works. I think it’s awesome that Speedvagen takes this beast to cross races. After I got done shooting Tom’s Speedvagen, he gave me a tour of the Speedvagen tank.

Since I can’t make it out to every rad event that takes place in SF, It’s nice to have Mike Martin of Mash to offer up some choice photos from the The Bicycle Art & Design of Garrett Chow: All Chips on the Table gallery show and Cutty Cross race. This show looked amazing and these photos will serve the purpose of introducing you to Garrett’s work if you’re unfamiliar.

Also, don’t miss out on a few shots of Garrett’s Specialized Concept Venge road bike after the show photos.

So now that we’ve seen what Ruckus’ shop looks like, how about a look at one of the frames that Shawn from Ruckus has built.  This is his own single speed cross bike, laced with a rather healthy component group, a sick paint job and some of those Ruckus vibes. I love the tag line on the downtube, the painted ENVE components and the cross bash guard. You don’t see a whole lotta flat bar monster cross bikes but when you do, they’re drool-worthy.

I can’t think of a better way to spend my last day in Portland than to watch and photograph Cross Crusade. There aren’t many times that I get to venture into a muddy cross course and everything I’ve heard of Portland cyclocross is indeed true. It was a muddy, fast time with a great turn out. See more in the gallery.

Every year, when autumn rolls around, cyclocross invades this blog. Road racing is done for the year, forcing the Manual for Speed crew out into muddy grass with their Mamiya 7’s loaded and jokes cracking. At least that’s how it went down at this year’s Cross Vegas. Emiliano Granado is quite the photographer but an even better heckler. Check out his mid-heckling photography in this clever Guest Gallery.