CX

Sunday I wasn't racing, but spectating a CX race.  My buddy Sean started racing CX this year and low and behold he had a race less than a mile from my house, so of course I'd be there!!

Whenever I'm at a race and not racing (or my race for the day is done) I like to get out there and take photos.  It's really fun!! Finding the cool places on the course to get good action shots.

Be forewarned, Sean makes the most amazing race faces.

Barriers:

Crushing it through the start/finish straightaway:

Sandpit grinding:

Look how excited the spectators are... one is even stripping!!

Run up, from two perspectives (that thing was STEEP):

If only I could make a living taking race photos...

At this race I only really took photos of Sean and his teammates, with the exception of one large cowboy hat wearin racer - you put THAT much effort in you deserve your picture taken, right?

The added bonus of taking pictures of a CX race is that you can easily get shots at various sections of the course, since it's so compact.  And then there is the reason so many people like to watch a cx race... well, other than you get to see your friends pretty much throughout the whole course... the crashes.

Luckily, well maybe not for him, there was a crash in front of Sean's teammates (739) as he was coming through the sandpit which resulted in a big pile up.  The luck comes in there because I was taking pictures of the whole thing.  I think the most insane thing was how quickly he got up and out of the situation - really kept his head and drive going the whole time.

mid air

handlebar in the...

ouch, looks like he's stepping on some guy's wheel!

and he's off!

unfortunately he had to stop in the next sandpit to fix his chain...
but it could have been a lot worse!!

Overall it was a pretty fun spectating experience (not a race that I would be interested in getting involved in myself).  Not as wild as I hear cx races can get with all sorts of sideline shenanigans.  It was pretty tame, but still enjoyable... and you can't beat the proximity!