The School Yard Cross was a mud flinging event, but not like Blue sky velo's race where you couldn't hardly escape the mud, School Yard Cross had a manufactured mud pit that from the tales of the riders it had a different personality in each race, peanut butter in the morning and diarrhea by the final event. The mud pit didn't have too much effect on the outcome of the race but it did add to the excitement of the event, they even had bleachers setup for folks to watch the comedy. In the SS event I heard the crowds break out into a yells and cheers as a rider 1 or 2 places behind me (I believe the one photoed above) goes down face first into the diarrhea. The remainder of the race was fast in typical Colorado field conditions, bumpy and dusty. Huge course, something like 2.4 mile loops made for difficulty to be the most spectator friendly course but running through that mud more often would have up'd my chances to have been racing for Tide Racing!
There were a few photographers out there and one appeared to have gotten too close to the racers in the mud pit and himself was covered with mud. Overall, it sounded like many racers enjoyed the race with good weather, mud and David Towle at the mic. They even had a unique prize, second from last got "something".
Race Results
Photographers on course
Press
Videos
School Yard Cross Cat 4, 35+ from Michael Beck on Vimeo.
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Eddie Clark/Photo Cycle photos
Does anyone know where Eddie posts his photos, besides on Mountain Flyer? He seems to be at all the races, and does some good work, I wouldn't mind taking a look at more of them.
Thanks
Boulder Cup #4 Location?
Boulder Cup #4 Location?
It's Monday, race is Sunday.
Colorado Veldrijden Crusade Location?
Colorado Veldrijden Crusade - No flyer on ACA Site yet, either...
Boulder Racing #4
I believe the location is Xilinx
http://boulderracing.com/cross.asp
Schoolyard Cross
I always hoped I'd get my 15 minutes of fame on 303Cycling for maybe a podium result and not a nose dive into 8 inches of mud soup! Oh well! I love the sequence from Sportif images. They really capture the gracefulness of the face plant and then the shock on my face as I get up and try to regroup. Thanks for the great pics, the great racing, and letting me and my family see how funny it looked.
See ya at the races!
Chad
Chad, I think I was the one
Chad,
I think I was the one that ran into you in the mud pit, sorry if that's what made you go over. If it means anything, I think I had the brakes locked up for a good 10' before I hit you.
Feel free to punch me in the arm or something at the next race.
Neil
That's racing
Neil, it all happened so fast it's hard to say... No worries though. That's racing!
Chad
Mud
Clint told me they added water to the mud throughout the day to make it safer - he said it was rutted and unrideably thick early on.
Schoolyard Cross Mud Pit
We did enhance the mud on raceday morning. That road receives all of the runoff from the gymnasiums and tennis courts. On Thursday the road had a lot of water and looked like it would be fine for racing. On Friday I rode through the mud pit several times. The mud pit changed dramatically throughout the day Friday. It was quite warm and windy and the pit started to dry to a peanut butter consistency. On the last trip, I hit a rut and was thrown into the fence.
So, we either had to enhance the mud with some water or change the course into a goathead infested area. I chose the hose. I learned something about delegating a task. You need to tell them what is enough!
From the pictures, it looks like good fun was had by all.
Happy trails,
Clint
Clint, Wise choice. I
Clint,
Wise choice. I thought the mud pit was a blast and the group cheering from the bleachers was a nice touch. I hope more races include crowd pleaser's like this in the future. I am pretty sure artificial mud is created for some Cross Crusade races, like the infamous "sh$t pit" (sorry kids)at Wash County Fairgrounds.
yeah, it was pretty thick
yeah, it was pretty thick and play-doughy early on.