The best sports, we say, combine beauty and ridiculousness, and that’s why cycling is a favorite of ours. But, like many others in the Bay Area--too many, it turns out--we’ve recently discovered cyclocross, a form of Pure Sweet Hell. Others have written eloquently on the attractions of this "bike-riding amalgam of roller derby, steeplechase, mud wrestling, and ballet" -- so let us just say here that, as a spectacle, it combines all the beauty and ridiculousness of your standard road race with an added beautiful/ridiculous component of leaping on and off the bicycle to surmount the various natural and artificial obstacles by sadistic (and therefore beloved) race promoters.

The growing number of Bay Area cyclocross enthusiasts are fortunate to have a full calendar of events: the local season was launched September 1st with the first race at the Livermore Area Recreation and Park Department (or "LARPD"--charming!) race series. Our neighbors on the periphery of the Bay Area (i.e., beyond the reach of BART) also host cyclocross series (Sacramento, the Central Coast), but the crown jewel of Northern California is the Bay Area’s own Super Prestige Cyclocross Series, now in its fifth season (or saison cinq, as the preferred nomenclature would have it).

Along with hundreds of riders of all ages, genders, shapes, and sizes, we enjoyed the series opener on Sunday down at Sierra Point in sunny Brisbane, managing not to fall down (as we did last month at LARPD #2). But the popularity of the sport may lead to difficulties for the Bay Area Super Prestige Series: organizers say that the Park Service has gotten complaints about cyclocross riders tearing up Golden Gate Park and McClaren Park, threatening the coveted permits that allow sanctioned races to be held in those parks annually. According to organizer Tom Simpson of Pilarcitos Sports, "we have a very serious potential to lose legitimate access to all SF Parks for races."

We love our equipment-intensive sport, with its bright colors, spandex (cyclists cringe when this generic word is used in place of the trademarked term Lycra), corporate sponsorship, blood, dirt, and oxygen debt, and we love prestige, especially super prestige, so along with Mr. Simpson, we wish to discourage our fellow cyclocrossers from training in the city parks. Yes, those bumpkins from beyond the BART system will have an advantage over you at the next race, because they can train all they want in their vast rural habitat--but at least there will be a next race, a beautiful, ridiculous race.

Public-transportation-friendly cyclocross races:

The Bay Area Super Prestige Cyclocross Series:
October 24: Candlestick Point Recreation Area
November 4: McClaren Park
November 25: Golden Gate Park
December 9: Coyote Point in San Mateo (take Caltrain
instead of BART)

The Livermore Area Recreation and Parks Department Cyclocross Series (.pdf):
October 20, December 8, 22, and 29: Robertson
Community Park, Livermore (about 9 miles east of the
Dublin/Pleasanton BART station--the perfect warm-up)

All images taken by Jonathan Hunt.