Cyclocross season is upon us, and after being cancelled a couple times it was nice to see the Vanier Park event happening this year. I realized I had a friend racing at 10:15am while I had my coffee at 9:30, so hastily made my way across town on the Stooge Rambler to spectate.
The 10:15 races included entry level mens and womens, as well as the single speed and fixed gear tracklocross groups. Some very sweet bikes! And a tandem?!
The day was pretty dry and therefore dusty; probably good for the health of the grass, but not really in the spirit of cyclocross racing.
This off-camber, hard packed corner took many victims; here are a few I saw:
The uphill barrier jumps were entertaining as well; below are a couple racers in very close quarters. I am not much for bike racing, but the technical nature and close-quarter racing is something I would really enjoy.
I also did a fair bit of dog watching:
Here’s Tom in a classic Tom pose (right) and a surprising amount of lean on the off-camber turn by an unknown racer.
The elite women’s group was small but fast. The elite men’s group was also quite small; not sure why the event drew a relatively small number of fast folks out this year.
I was quite impressed to see a couple racers who did jump these tall barriers – on a steep uphill after the aforementioned off-camber slippery corner, it didn’t seem possible to me. But I was proven wrong as noted below. The final photo is of the wispy clouds on my ride home from the event.
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