Photo © Peloton Magazine

Seeing this picture by Peloton Magazine and all the others of the beer throwing knobs at Cross Vegas crushed me. Worse, hearing Lars Van der Haar say he would second guess coming back because of 'the assholes throwing beer' at the racers made me even more sick. 

Don't get me wrong. I want cross to be punk rock in a way, but not at the expense of flagrant idiocy which does none of us any justice. 

Then I read this piece by Bill Schieken from in The Crosshairs. Great tribute and one I felt compelled to write about...as a person who gave up on writing some time ago! But subjects like this...as they relate to the credibility of our sport...a sport which I've bled for, broken bones for, evangelized to anyone, coached kids to believe in, made my parents understand and pleaded with my bosses for time off for is too important to my soul. So I wrote this 'addendum' to Bill's piece. Hope he doesn't mind...

This is an exceptional piece by Bill Shieken from InThe Crosshairs . Here's my 'addition' to his great piece:

-Don't bitch, help - There's so many characters in the sport now. Old curmudgeons, fanatical newbies, timid juniors and more. If you are new to the sport, and maybe found some success, and likely felt a connection to the scene and are so wrapped up in it all, you may suffocating the sport. Step back from it all, look at it for what it is, less for what you want out of it and what you can do to make it grow. Volunteer to marshall a race. Help with registration. Attend a city council on why CX should use the grass at some park. Show up. Be present. Understand it's special.

-Evangelize like it's wiffle ball, not the Tour de France - CX is hard. But if you're reading this, you probably know that. Don't gloat in it and how strong you are, and the 10 lbs you lost to cat up. Talk about the bike driving, the friends cheering, the rad bikes, the announcers who know your name, the insane courses we get the privilege to ride on and the beer. And get the people within earshot to understand it (and not you/your pursuits) and help and volunteer and be radicle. Keep it real, not cross-fit crazy, and just a great way to spend a beautiful fall day with friends.

-Help kids. We're at a weird place now in 2014 with a lot of 35-45-something people who have found religion over the past decade in endurance sports. Recreating themselves through suffering, while starting to raise their own families. Now they have brood, many of whom are seeing their sporting lens through their parents: CX, road races, triathalons and other endurance-specific pursuits which most kids really don't understand because their lives haven't developed enough to know the beauty of intentional suffering. I say, let them play...anything. Whatever they want. If they show an organic interest to drive bikes, then pounce on the bike-nerd-youngling and have fun, without talking racing. Just drive bikes like Adam Craig. Or run hills like the Kenyans, or play soccer like they saw on TV during the World Cup. That's it. If they want to drill a soccer ball into the net, let them do that, take Saturdays off from your racing and go see the gromm channel her inner Mia Hamm. Support it madly. Like you hear you being cheered at in a cross.

Cross is not dead - Bill didn't mean that. But it is accelerating fast and will turn into something massive(ly fun) if we do not poison it. It's up to us to decide how it evolves and what we want that evolution to be like. I want progression, but not at the expense of ridiculous asshattery I'm seeing in other growing "fringe" sports. Obviously this is subjective but maybe you know what I mean. Punk Rock is a perfect analogy as the purists would want to evangelize and make a newbie appreciate the message and the tone it was delivered...while the newbie interloper to the punk rock scene would scorn the newer newbie for being a newbie and having 'no appreciation or understanding'. Never good.

OK, rant is over. Thanks Bill. 

Purging things from our basement, I uncovered a goldmine of old pictures from 'the day'. Many were from when we'd just moved to Colorado from San Francisco in October of 2004. It made me reflect upon the amazing community we have here, great times and memories of great races....and more recently, the dream of seeing my son's do the same. We're all still learning, even after 18 years of putting numbers on my back for this sport. I can't stop. Won't stop (tm - Michael Cody). 

2004

October at the CU Research Park...a.k.a: The worlds crappiest cross course. Opperman and me slaying each other. I think he won that day. I think I passed out as this was my first race at altitude. 

2005

Racing for and managing Bobby's Rocky Mounts cross team. We were a crappy squadra but well loved. This was States, Cat 3s I think. I won some races but not this revered one at Xilinx. It still is one of my favorite courses. 

2006

States again at Xilinx, this time I move up to the fast old guys, the 35s. Great weather that year. Jon C motored all of us. Couldn't catch that guy as I remember each time on the pavement he was a blur scooting away from us, then each time in the mud/technical we'd accordion that machine back. 

2007

35's States, Lyons, CO, 17 degrees. I had frost nip for 4 months after this race. 

2008

Cross Vegas UCI race. It was like racing in an oven. When Frischy caught me at minute 50, that was that...but it was a dream come true. 

2009

Cross Vegas UCI race again...more oven. 

2010

35's, States, the first year of the BCS Ambassador squad. That's Pete throwing hup at me. 

This was Aiden's first 'season' - he did a few races and fell in love. 

2011

Xilinx, men's open, hotter than Hades. 

Aiden getting some at States at Castle Rock. 

2012

USGP, 35s, massive field, great day and most perfect conditions. 

Aiden bos-rijden at Xilinx, Blue Sky Cup. 

Seamus in his first year of racing the beautiful sport with three to go. States, Castle Rock. 

2013

Blue Sky Cup, 35's, slipped pedal at the start - literally put me DFL, and had to fight back all day. Anvil material. 

Aiden pushing hard at Primal Palooza in Golden at a horse farm. We got poop on us all day. 

Seamus showing fine Boulder Junior Cycling form at Primal Palooza in Golden. 

On to 2014. More memories to be had as this whole story evolves. Proud to be part of this community and fabric of characters who call themselves Colorado crossers. Lots more photos collected over the years found here in my Flickr repository. You may see yourself in there! SO many great photographers out on the race course every weekend it's incredible. Dejan Smaic, Shawn Lortie, Terri Irsik-Smith, John Flora, Mountainmoon Photography, Daniel Dunn, Yann Ropers, Bo Bickerstaff, Green Curry Photography, and many many more. Thanks for being out there and making memories.