Sports Halloween Cyclocross in Bend, OR

KillRamsey

Hall of Famer
Location
Hood River, OR
Name
Kyle
We spent the weekend watching (and the girls racing in) a cyclocross event down in Bend. If you're not familiar with it, cyclocross is basically riding whatever bike you want (usually a roady-looking bike but with knobby skinny little tires) over obstacles, mud, sand, stairs, barriers, etc. Thus, a bike you can carry and run hard with helps. A race goes about 45 mins, or 4-ish laps of just under 2 very hard miles each. The most skilled riders can often jump or ride the obstacles, which is crazy to watch when you've seen nothing but streams of people running up/over whatever it is.

Anywho, I took the Rokinon 12, the 35 f1.4, the 56 1.2, and the XC 50-230. They all got used, they all did well, and as usual I strongly wish I had a backup body for fewer lens changes.


Kids 5-7 race:
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KBRX1082P
by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Panning with him, rokinon 12
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KBRX1143P
by gordopuggy, on Flickr

They ran the 7-9 kids through the volleyball course too... they didn't pull many punches.
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KBRX1261
by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Heckling is a big part of it, usually the friendly kind. We demanded chest hair, and were obliged.
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KBRX1497P
by gordopuggy, on Flickr

If you didn't want to carry up a huge set of 2 foot high treaded stairs, you could slog around it, like this:
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KBRX1600P
by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Or, you could climb the stairs. It was faster, if you could pull it off.
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KBRX2092P
by gordopuggy, on Flickr

If you find the right spot, where you can get in close without being in the way, the 12 is so, so good for things like this...
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KBRX2352P
by gordopuggy, on Flickr

Another key component is "handups," in which spectators try to hand out treats (food, beer, liquor shots, whatever) to riders passing by. In this case, plates of pumpkin pie.
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KBRX2841
by gordopuggy, on Flickr

And this being a halloween ride, there were a lot of costumes. This dominatrix was too good at it to be pretending, there's NO way she's not a dom in real life. Everyone who went by got a shot.
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KBRX2863
by gordopuggy, on Flickr
 
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