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photo:julie [bigger]

cyclocross is a fall sport that i have come to love over the past several years. it satisfies my love of dirt from my mountain biking background, and provides an exciting, fast-paced, competitive environment that i have found addictive in its painfulness. it's a niche sport. it has it's own specific skill set and equipment. there are probably only a couple thousand people in the country at any given time who would label themselves active cyclocross racers. it's huge in europe though, in proportion to the popularity of cycling in general. going into my third season, i'm starting to consider myself a cyclocross racer more than a mountain biker. teammates who have been into it for longer say that is a common pattern.

the regular 'cross season starts in late september. there are local races on saturday and sunday most weekends into january. locally, they start out hot and dusty, and transition with the season to chilly and muddy. dfl, a local san francisco 'team' 'organizes' a pre-season race series called the urban outlaw cyclocrossdress series. (quotes indicate loosely defined terms.) basically they set up renegade cyclocross courses in public parks around san francisco and hold races. they charge $5 to race, but it's free if you opt to crossdress. so a dress from the goodwill pays for itself in one race. there is a best-dressed award at the end of the series. the courses are rough around the edges to say the least. non-optimal clothing increases the degree of difficulty. it is run auhorization- and insurace-free. because sometimes it is easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission. the effect is 50 some odd crossdressed bikers descend on a given park for a frantic, 45-minute hammer-fest, and then go away. hopefully before anyone complains.

participants range from first-timers to elite professionals. pokey to superfast. pot-smoking anarchist messengers to hyper-regimented bike racer geeks. with me falling somewhere in the middle on all scales. newbies are tentative and get lapped multiple times by the leaders. i usually get lapped once by the leaders and lap a few at the tail. from a race-organiztion point of view, it's a fast and loose nightmare. yet somehow everyone seems to play nice and does't get hurt. at least no too much.

this wacky urban phenomenon is how i got introduced to cyclocross in the first place. it is one of those uniquely san francisco things that makes me appreciate living in this city that can seem expensive and difficult sometimes. it takes racing, which can get so serious and negatively competitive, and turns it on it's head by adding elements of absurdity and chaos. and much hilarity ensues.

so i do the series. i try to appreciate the cultural aspects of it and not worry about my results too much, which can be hard for a racer-type. i and the other participants with aspirations of racing the real season risk an injury or a too-early peak to our fitness by starting to race early before the long season. so i realize that it might not be the best move towards realizing my potential in the 'real' races. but i also realize that i'm not really genetically programmed to become an elite bike racer, so i balance the risk with the fun of the series and the appreciation i have for it as a phenomenon.

here's what matt smith from the sfweekly had to say about it last year during the 10th anniversary series, with a political spin.

<br> - slut