The Radavist

This year, Texans got a true taste of what cyclocross is. We had a muddy, cold and shitty season. I wish I could have attended more races, but my travel schedule took precedence over my race schedule. Luckily, I was able to race and photograph the 2014 Texas Cyclocross State Championships this past weekend.

While there was no rain and the temperatures were in the 60’s, the winds were howling out of the southeast for most the day, sending the taped course into chaos. Saturday’s race was “skill based”, separating racers by category. 5’s through Cat 1’s and singlespeed.

What I directed my lens at was a good representation of what it’s like to race in Texas. For me, the women’s field was most impressive. They were tough and as an all-out grudge match unfolded, I watched some of the most competitive cycling of the year… Oh and fun stuff. Loads of fun stuff.

See for yourself in the Gallery.

Year after year, one race promises a good time and delivers. The SSCXWC is often riddled with controversy and inclement weather, luckily this year, the latter only applied. After a successful qualifier at the Bilenky Junkyard Cross course, the racers took to the main event at another location. This year’s course was part taped, part off-road through hobo trails and singletrack. To top it off, it started snowing at the onset of the chaos. Out came the kegs, the grills and the party hats. When the dust settled, two champions reigned supreme, Adam Craig and Vicki Barclay. That’s two in a row for Craig…

Chris King’s Dylan VanWeelden is quite handy with his camera. From shooting for the Chris King blog and various products, to covering events, Dylan has his lens tuned into the Buzz. Check out a selection of his photos in the Gallery!

Year after year, Bilenky‘s Junkyard Cross brings in a varying crowd of cyclists from the party-racers to the pros. This year however, Steve and the gang played their cards a little differently, embracing the SSCXWC in Philly and throwing Junkyard Cross as the qualifier for the main event. Things got weird for sure…

Photographer Chris Lee was on the scene with his 35mm SLR and DSLR to catch all the action. Check out some selects in the Gallery!

Portland’s Amanda Sundvor knows how to throw a party almost as much as she knows how to throw a race. Especially an outdoor race. In the middle of winter. In Portland! I think it’s amazing that people actually showed up, threw down $5 and raced around a freezing cold pump track and had a blast doing it. If anything, it’s a testament to how people just want to get rad year round. That’s a race party!

When I found out about the event (sorry I forgot to post the flier), I asked Brenton Salo to get out and shoot some photos. At this point, Brenton is like my Portland connection when it comes to events. If you see that man around town, buy him a coffee or a glass of whiskey!

Check out more from the Dirty Doubles Pumpish Track Race below!

What an event! For the past year, I’ve been putting in intense laps on this little piece of singletrack over on the east side of Austin. It’s not much, but for me, it got me in mode for cross season. When I casually mentioned the idea about doing a race here in Austin to Jeff from All-City, he was so down. The only question was: is it gonna be weird?

I never thought making an event weird was the key ingredient. I was just reminded of the cheesy tie-dye “Keep Austin Weird” shirts but when Kyle and Jeff got into town, they wanted to know how the race was going to be weird.

Honestly, I did very little, other than make a tough, technical and different race go down. 50 people registered, twice as many spectated and about 30 finished. There were glow-sticks marking off the treachery, log hops, muddy run ups, a 200-foot sand sprint, fast, twisty singletrack, a long wooden staircase run-up and a creek crossing.

One guy raced it on a BMC track bike, another on a fixed gear, there were three mountain bikes, a bunch of cross bikes and a basket bike. Oh and Tucker showed up on his neon pedicab.

The fastest lap was 9 minutes and the winner did an extra because he didn’t believe me that the race was done.

So in the end, this race was pretty fucking weird and no one was hurt! We ended the night at Yellow Jacket Social Club where I threw all the race money back at the participants with a keg of beer and cash prized for the top 3 and 1st lady.

There were a bunch of photographers on hand, but I chose to post Nick Cantrell‘s and Gideon Tsang‘s photos from the Yellow Jacket.

Check out Erik Binggeser’s photos here, Dirt Drops’ here and J.A. Hicks’ very pro photos here!

Austin, you surprise me every time.

Spooky Cross. For most of the world, it’s a segue into a long and arduous cross season. But for the Dirty Deeds CX league, it’s the end of series party. Unlike most spooky cross races, each race was one or two laps max, coming in under 10 minutes per heat.

Since this was my first DDCX event, I don’t have much to gauge from it other than I saw a lot of people, in exceptional costumes, having fun on bikes. That’s good enough for me. Oh and there was a streaker…

See more in he Gallery!

Last night brought the third and most fun edition of the Beat the Clock Cycling and Cycleast Urbocross race series. Why was it fun? It was a long course, on singletrack, doubletrack, hobo trails and taped sections through woodchips. Also, it had the gnarliest runup I’ve ever seen. This area of town is one of my favorite training grounds and last night, a couple dozen racers found out why. See for yourself in the Gallery!

This past weekend brought the first cross race of the season to Texas: the Bicycle Sport Shop Six Shooter. Since my first cross race at the end of last year’s season, I’ve been looking forward to this event all summer. I spend so much time on my cross bike during the off-season, that it’s only natural for me to push myself and it, to the test. After getting a good night’s sleep, I cleaned up the bike and headed out to the course to see what Austin had prepared for us.

Turns out, the BSS Six Shooter broke records this year. It was the biggest turn out to a cross race in Texas history. Now, I know that may not seem like a big deal to the Northwest or Northeastern United States but it was a huge turnout. My class had 80 racers register! It was a bit intimidating, but I just broke free like a demon and ended up winning. I guess ripping through the woods really is a great form of “training”. Since I was blasted the rest of the Saturday, I decided I’d shoot photos on Sunday and cheer on my friends.

There were thrills, hella funny spills (sorry Josh, I had to) and good times were had. Check out more in the Gallery!

These days, I can never decide if I want to race, or shoot photos at events like this. Last night’s Cycleast and Beat the Clock Cycling Urbocross looked so rad. Half singletrack and half bike path sprinting seemed like a 50/50 fun to pain ratio for me. I can eat up dirt just fine but I don’t have the fitness for long, paved straight aways. On a whim, after showing up in plain clothes, I entered the race and was doing fine sitting in second until I got a pinch flat. So it goes. At least I got to take a few more photos!

This set is weird. Half of it is of a local racer’s Black Cat SSCX and the other, pre, mid and post race photos. Either way, it’s a bit of radness everyone can enjoy. Check out more in the Gallery! Many thanks to Cycleast and Beat the Clock for putting on this event. See ya next week…