Sugar High, Gotta Feel It, Can't Conceal It

Only two days to go until Brunswick Cycling Club and Dirty Deeds CX present Spooky Cross, incorporating the SSCXWC, and I can tell you that DDCXHQ is Big Kev Excited, and it has nothing to do with snacking on the sweets as we fill the lolly bags.

Image: Cotton Sox Photography

Racing will kick off at 4pm Saturday 3rd of November at Australia's spiritual home of cyclocross, Harrison Street Velodrome, and we'll be cutting the lights and packing down at 9pm, the order of events is as follows:

Rego/course practice will open at 3pm (ish), $10 entry for adults, $5 for kids, $5 / $3 in costume.

• Time Trials / Hot lap
• Kids Scratch
• Open Scratch
• CXW/CXB Scratch
• CXA Scratch
• Relay
• Kids Handicap
• Open Handicap
• CXW/CXB Handicap
• CXA Handicap
• SSCXWC Trophy Race
• Presentations

"Relay" you say? Think a cyclocross version of the Little 500, (side note, there better be a team dressed up as the Cutters,) with two person teams racing on the same bike, mandatory bike changes each lap. Unlike the Little 500, you have to have brakes.

The final event of the night will be the SSCXWC Trophy Race. Yes there are trophies and medals, yes Blakey & Erle made them in the backyard from scrap bike parts, but don't you want to be the first woman or man to get your name engraved on it? Who cares about the first NCXS results, this is where the real glory lives.

If you do not have a BMXA/CA/MTBA licence or a temporary permit/DDCX Season Pass, we will have some 3 ride permits for sale, these will be $50 and you can use it for two other CA sanctioned races within 3 months. If you are a little tacker, i.e. under 11yo, an annual Kidz licence will cost you $15.

Nikcee & Jez have been whipping up a spooktacular course that includes a tunnel of terror, 'jump zone' barriers, lasers, smoke and who knows, possibly even zombie obstacles.

There will be free face painting for the kids (and the adults) from 4-6pm, lolly bags for every competitor in the kids race (sorry parents for the sugar high that will ensue!), hell, lolly bags for most of the adults too!

Beatbox Kitchen will once again be slinging burgers and fries, and if you're lucky you might even get a freebie if you can grab the voucher while you're racing. 

What more do you want? Get in costume, come on down, race, heckle, have a banger of a time and help us close out the 2012 Cyclocross season with a complete lack of style.

Pumpkin Faces In The Night

Just under a week until SpookyCX and the first ever BCCDDCXSSCXWC race.

DDCXHQ have been organising their costumes and busily making trophies and medals to award to the SSCX champions. Too much coffee was consumed and the engraving is a little shaky, we're working on it.

 

We'd like to take a moment to remind you that whilst we highly encourage dressing up, whether you're racing or spectating, please put some thought and creativity into your costume. Take a leaf out of Ohio University's book and skip the cultural appropriation, and give any pre-made costumes with 'sexy' in the title a pass. (Unless of course it's 'sexy zombie pigeon'.) Use your imagination, get your DIY on and see if you can win our best costume award on the night.

If you have any questions about licencing / race categories etc, drop us a line now, don't leave it until Friday.

Calendar Girl

Brian 'does it in a dress' Mangano has put together a sweet 2013 CX calendar just in time to purchase at SpookyCX. A portion of the profits goes to the excellent Brunswick Cycling Club's junior clinic. Buy a calendar, support the kids & keep Brian fed so he can keep taking shots of you getting rad. Bring $15, or your eftpos card along on the night.

In A World Of Ghosts...

Pic: Brian Mangano, who does it in a dress.

So the DDCX politburo sat down over an ale last week and finally hashed out the details for the race.

Festivities will kick off at 4pm and wind up around 9pm so we don't wear out our welcome with the neighbours.

Race classes have changed a little this time:

• Kids
• Open - MTBs, folding bikes, tandems, etc
• CX - tyres <35mm, drop bars.
• SSCX, yes SSCX! - Singlespeed drivetrain (tensioners and SS kits ok), tyres <35mm, fully rigid frame, flat/drop bars, 26"/700C ok.

This might be an unserious night of racing, but we take rider safety seriously, and as such you will need to have a BMXA/MTBA/CA licence, or a Dirty Deeds Season Pass, or a CV 3 ride permit. If you are under 11 years old then you can purchase a Kidz licence on the day for $15, and this is valid for one year. If you are confused, or washed your DDCX pass after the last race, email us.

To begin with there will be a 'Hot Lap' / TT which will be used to seed riders, and of course there will be a prize for the fastest lap of the night. And if someone does a lap in 66.6 seconds they'll probably get a prize too.

Following that the schedule will include the following races:

• Short duration scratch and handicap racing for all classes
• Little 500 style relay race (all riders on a team must ride the same bike)
• Inaugural Brunswick CC - Dirty Deeds CX Singlespeed Cyclocross World Championship

If you come dressed in costume you'll get discounted entry, but the registration desk reserves the right to reject any lame attempts. Here's some inspiration for you: http://imgur.com/a/zMoDe

We can't promise mud, the Great Pumpkin or fantastic prizes, but we can promise lolly bags, fun & good times.

Rain On The Scarecrow

I'm already a week late on my report from Sydney, but amongst a myriad of excuses there is the fact that 'cross season just got reaallllll good over in the states.

How good?

This good...

(all photos courtesy cyclingdirt.com)

Watch what I mean here:

Watch more video of 2012 Providence Cyclocross Festival CyclingDirt Classic #1 on cyclingdirt.org

Massive props to (21yr old!) Zach McD for his clear win in a heavyweight Elite field and for being so humble about it. Helen Wyman getting her 9th straight win deserves some recognition too.

Nys/Albert battling in Ruddervoorde wasn't bad either...

The first World Cup in a couple of weeks will be interesting.

(I Wanna See) Oka Everywhere

As the brain fog clears from a great weekend up in Sydney for the final rounds of the inaugural National Cyclocross Series the fun ain't done (just yet).

First of all much congratulation is due to the overall winners (AJ and Lisa Jacobs) as well as the individual round winners (Sid and Mel) for some wicked good racing on a very interesting course. The battles all up and down the positions between many new friends made it hard and fun. It was truly a great way to end what was a great series.

 I'm sure the fine folks at CA will have the overall series rankings published soon enough so you can see where you finished and it might inspire you to head out of state to a few more of the races next year (if only to make sure that Blakey doesnt end up beating you overall).

Coming up this weekend is the final race of the Cross Melburn series. After many venue headaches they are back at Lysterfield, and you can be pretty sure that the beach will make a comeback after the success/suffering it caused last time. It also features my favourite stair set in any course I've raced. Head over here for more information...

 Then the weekend afterwards is the Double Cross. Many of the DDCX organisers will be in attendance so don't be afraid to say hi, or share a sandwich with us at the feed zones. Well except for Jeremy as he will likely just be quickly bunny-hopping off into the distance. Word is that the course is pretty damn fun and you don't want that cross bike to get dusty do you?

and finally, plans are coming together for the aforementioned SpookyCX. Have no fear more information is coming once Blakey returns from his foray into #vanlife, but suffice to say costumed racer entry discounts, mystery tents, inter-discipline race formats and lots of high fives are all in store. We are deadly serious about this being a fun event.