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17 November 2013

An Urban Cyclocross Race

What a ton of fun!

Someone had a crazy notion to place a cyclocross course down by the railroad tracks. What a fine idea that turned out to be. Forget the smell of the pines and crisp mountain air you might associate with Colorado - today's race had dust in the air, the rattle of passing trains, and the smell of bacon and beer.

The Mile High Urban CX Chaos took place today on one of the best courses I have seen and certainly one of the most fun to photograph, with nothing of true beauty in the background, suddenly everything became interesting as the focus was placed squarely on both the people racing and heckling.

I missed the last two categories of the day, but I really enjoyed seeing the morning and mid-day categories featuring men, women and juniors competing on cross bikes, fat tires, singlespeed, and adaptive hand cranked bikes. Honestly I didn't take too many photos today because I was having a great time with my friends cheering and heckling the racers.

A new friend asked me, "Do you even heckle the kids?" "Absolutely" I replied, it is cyclocross (although it's done in a supportive heckling way).

Album of Photos from Urban CX, or the slideshow. More photos at 303Cycling.com Thank you to Deirdre Moynihan, Primal Wear, and The Natural Way team for race design and organization. We all experienced a great atmosphere where racers wanted to hang out in support of the other categories.

The skyscrapers of downtown Denver in the background
In an area of new urban growth down by the railroad tracks
They hand built the secteur pavé, a cobbled hill ... in Denver
It made us all feel like we were in Belgium
Did I mention the tandem mountain bike on course
The place was crawling with photographers
And lots of small but fast cyclocross racers
With a new exciting category for adaptive bikes & athletes
A great day of racing through sand
And air
And dirt
In such an odd, but perfect, backdrop for a bike race
 
Colorado State CX Championships are December 14-15. Also remember Colorado is playing host to this year's Cyclocross National Championships in Boulder, January 8-12, 2014. Colorado CX Race Schedule or at Bicycle Racing Association of Colorado (BRAC).