From Thursday’s Albany Times Union:

For this, gotta love mud, bud
Cyclocross racers unafraid of sloppy elements or nasty falls

By ALAN WECHSLER, Staff writer
First published: Thursday, September 18, 2008

TROY — It seemed counter intuitive to ride a $2,000, 18-pound bicycle through the mud, but such is cyclocross.

This sport is clearly not for those who consider it sacrilege to mistreat a bike. During a typical ”cross race,” a bicycle will likely be ridden over a dirt course and covered in mud, be yanked over barriers, ungracefully mounted by sweaty riders and otherwise subject to nasty crashes.

Last Sunday, 30 local riders learned how.

The would-be racers, ranging from the first-timers to avid fans, from kids to riders old enough for AARP, came out for an annual clinic at Prospect Park in Troy. The event, sponsored by the local group Nycross.com, featured Massachusetts-based pro rider Alec Donahue, who is a road-race champion in that state as well as a high-ranked mountain biker.

Cyclocross sounds like mountain biking, but actually it predates fat tires by many decades. It was invented in Europe in the early 20th century as a way for racers to keep riding after the road racing season wrapped up in September.

Cyclocross became an official sport in the 1950s, but only recently has picked up popularity in the United States.

Read the rest of the story here.

Bruce from Scenic Route took some photos of the Packet today while we were at the Rochester Cobbs Hill Cyclocross race. Here they are:

Joey also took photos of the Packet:

Bernie and I took the Packet (Xtracycle) over to Cobbs Hill this morning for the cyclocross races. What, you might ask, is cyclocross? Here’s what the unimpeachable Wikipedia has to say:

Cyclocross is a form of bicycle racing. Races take place typically in the autumn and winter (the international or “World Cup” season is September-January), and consists of many laps of a short (2.5–3.5 km or 1.5–2 mile) course featuring pavement, wooded trails, grass, steep hills and obstacles requiring the rider to quickly dismount, carry the bike whilst navigating the obstruction and remount in one graceful motion.[1][2] Races for senior categories are generally between 30 minutes and an hour long, with the distance varying depending on the ground conditions. The sport is strongest in the traditional road cycling countries such as Belgium (and Flanders in particular) and France.

Getting some air on Cobbs Hill

Cobbs Hill was a nice site for the race. Steep hills, lots of switchbacks, and good places from which to watch the race. And bringing the Packet to the race was like bringing a bag of cash to Capitol Hill. Everyone was crowding around me, wanting to know about the bike. I met several RocBike regulars for the first time, including Joey and Gary. I also ran into Shana, Bruce, and Tim. Hey gang! (Be sure to check out Bruce’s photos and Joey’s photos.)

This is Tung Luong from Full Moon Vista, one of the assemblers of my Xtracycle. As he came down the big hill, he saw me and yelled “Hey, Xtracycle!”

I whittled my gazillion pictures down into a few dozen:

12►