I wonder if heckling was going on back in 1919? This sort of reminds me of a good BASP fan section, but where is the beer being sprayed on the racers? It does seem that this brutal run up had a gathering of spectators just wondering if the riders can navigate such a steep pitch...
I like the collared shirt on this rider going through hub deep water and mud- a very stylish shirt for racing. Nor-Cal needs more of these deep water-mud pits to spice things up...
Today's Nor-Cal Cyclo-Cross is lacking the 1 or 2 minute long run-up sections...
This photo below reminds me of a section of course from some of the classic "Jungle Cross" Nor-Cal races of the 80's- one line of trail and if you get off that line trying to pass or something, you are most likely going to be down in a ditch looking up at the racers rolling past...
The more things change- the more things stay the same! Our run ups are much shorter in today's Cross events, but the spectators still migrate to the top of the run-ups to get the best view of the suffering at hand...
I want to see some downhill running sections this season- the extra large fields of today's Cross would be quite entertaining trying to navigate super steep running sections of loose and twisting downhill trail- this would make for quite the spectacle...
You know it is steep when the racers use their off hand to maintain balance and dig into the grass and dirt to keep upward momentum...
I think there was heckling going on back in the day...
The last two photos really show the incredible near vertical run-ups that were used in early Cyclo-Cross races. It seemed no hill was too steep to challenge the riders. And the style of running up from the athletes was part balancing act- part crawling. This again reminds me of some of the Nor-Cal Cyclo-Cross of the 80's when "Jungle Cross" ruled and only the strongest survived.
