NorCal Cycling News – Cycling and Racing in Northern California

I love Las Vegas.  I love cyclocross.  It is only natural that the two get together making a combination that has not been topped since Oscar met Mayer and invented baloney.  It is happening on September 14th. Mark your calendars.

Cross Vegas is happening this year, which looked iffy for a while when Interbike announced their ill-fated plans to move the trade show portion of Cross Vegas, cleverly named Interbike by the Interbike Co., to Anaheim or some other god forsake spot in SoCal.  First of all stupid idea.  Second of all, thank god you came to your senses Interbike Co., cause if Cross Vegas didn’t happen I never would have forgiven you… ever.  The beauty is tickets are five bucks, you gotta support the endeavor, but you do need to sort out transportation, which I might add, has been getting better each year, so you do not have to worry about getting stranded… which happend to me one year, and even though I ended up hanging out in a bar with a bunch of locals, I got a bunch of  tips which came in handy later in the night but that’s another story.

Why is Cross Vegas so great?  Well – it draws the best cross talent in the US, and is starting to draw a bunch of the Euro racers out of that backward sub-continent that unfortunately is the birth of all things cycling. In addition they have gone to great lengths to make the women’s event as exciting and as lucrative as the men’s event.  Crank Brothers is using the event as a launching pad for their new women’s cx team and their support has enabled the event to take a new level.

“What a perfect way to support women’s racing,” CrossVegas Director Brook Watts commented, “equal prizes for the Top 5 places shows the efforts that cyclocross is taking to bridge the gender gap.  Crankbrothers understands that and turns it into a fun promotional opportunity.”

In addition to Crank Brother support NorCal favorite Clif Bar has stepped up as title sponsor which is typical in their ability to snif out the cool stuff before other folks.  In addition to helping the event grow Clif Bar will be taking some of the goodies they distribute on the floor of Interbike out to the fields where the cross race is running.

CLIF BAR’s increased participation will provide greater on-site activities for staff and guests as well as increased visibility across all promotional materials, including national advertising. In addition, the full range of CLIF energy foods and drinks will be sampled to spectators on-site.

I don’t want you to walk away and think this is all a shill for the race.  Well it is.. but I got plans, big plans. First of all, Hernando was spotted at one of the early CX races, it would be great to get him out there again. Doesn’t it look like he was having fun?

Second of all… it’s the spot of my biggest YouTube hit which you can see below.  Katheryn Curi Mattis is looking at riding the race and I’m currently mulling over my heckling costume so I can cheer her comeback on in style.  I’m thinking we need a NorCal theme if we are going to heckle our locals.  Think it over… if you are going we can coordinate.  Also… don’t be shy about giving my YouTube hit a thumbs up… I think Lance personally is trying to vote it down.