News/Things

Most of you know that Cross season has descended upon cyclists like a roaring avalanche coming down the mountain.  For you folks up in the Mountain Northwest the next two weekends play host to two top notch cyclocross races, which will in the future blow up.  Attend now, and in the years to come you will be able to start sentences with "I remeber back in first couple years of the race..."  The two races I speak of are Moose Cross down in Victor, ID and Rolling Thunder/Greased Lightning in Missoula, MT.

Moose Cross is taking place this weekend, and despite only being in its second year, the race is taking off.  The fine folks have already moved from the one day format to a two day set up, and from everything you see on the site it looks like they have stepped up their game to an ungodly high level.  Last year I headed down and raced the day away with various members of the Mule Crew, the course was great, and all I'm going to add is that across the street from the course was a brewery.  This year it looks like folks from Bozeman and Helena will be making the trip for the race.  I personally think I will retire from racing at Moose Cross, so I can have the stellar statistic of one race, one victory.  Instead it looks like I'll be on the microphone, helping out with the MC duties.  

Rolling Thunder/Greased Lightning is next weekend, and if you haven't heard of this race yet, I would advice taking a deep breath and taking your head out of your ass.  Mr. MTCX loves cross more than anyone I've ever met, and just knows how to do things right, no ifs ands or buts about it.  If you make the trip to Missoula, you will not be disappointed, its that simple.  

One the mountain bike side of things, it looks like "The Race Across the Sky" documentary will be showing at hundreds of theaters across the country on October 22 (Thursday).  At this years Leadville 1oo a bunch of video was taken of Lance (with the aid of a couple extra late addition worker bees) spanking the rest of the field.  I caught a glimpse of the trailer, and it looks like it is pretty high quality documentary.  Here is a link to the pdf file which shows what theaters will be showing the film.  As far as MT goes it looks like only Helena and Bozeman will be showing it, which pisses me off.  How does Missoula not get this movie playing at the Wilma?

Finally, this week, the news came down about the death of Frank Vandenbrouke being found dead.  It seems like the most recent chapter in the book of tortured European cyclists who seemingly being a product of the doping era of cycling having their lives fall into a tailspin and not being able to get the proper aid needed to get back on the right track.  I'd love to provide some insight, but I don't really know what more to add that has already been said by others.  Snake Hawk over at Drunkcyclist wrote a great post, well worth the couple minutes of reading time (FYI: adult language).  So if you haven't already done so, raise a glass to VDB, and let the ones who really matter to you, know that they do.