A cyclocross day in the mud at pir

Click the image above to go to the gallery.
Well, wasn’t that a weird day -- even by Cross Crusade standards?

Deep mud making everyone look like they ride for the same team: Mud People.

Costumes coming out again, giving some folks a chance to pull out a left over from last week’s Halloween race in Astoria.

Multiple start lines for the Single Speed Crazy Cross World Slapstickships.

Human barriers hanging from the Thunder Dome.

A marching band finding refuge from the rain under the Shimano tent.

A rock band channeling Black Sabbath (no chickens were harmed in the making of this music).

One of the best (and tallest) cyclocross riders in the country decides to run with a dog, rather than ride a bike, in the the SSCCWS - see above.

And all the while, car racing bumps and whines in the background, reminding us that even though we're all out having fun and getting tired and burning calories, there's a lot of motorheading still going on in America.

That beer waiting for us at home felt a little tame after all that. But welcome, too.