Mud, Snow, and Cyclocross

Book excerpt: "Cyclocross is a far more emotional cycling event than anything else. I think it's because you're on the limit right from the beginning. It has more tragedy - mechanical tragedy, crashes, rolled tires - it's a game of mistakes, it's very much like a Shakespearean drama." -Richard Fries Cyclocross has, in recent years, become the fastest growing form of cycling in the US, according to USA Cycling. And the elite racers, race promoters and the cycling industry all are in agreement that there's no end in sight. But, until now, there hasn't been a book written about cyclocross in the US: it's past, present and future. There've been books on training for cyclocross, and Europe has their own ompendiums about their great racers, but no one in the US has taken it upon him or herself to write about the US greats, from Jeremy Powers to Katie Compton to the US Grand Prix of Cyclocross to the Cannondale-CyclocrossWorld team. This book looks at them all, from the greats who started to build the sport in the US in the 1970s to the juniors who are the greatest hope for the future of cyclocross. And throughout the pages are the stories of triumph, of defeat, of fun and of suffering. But through each of those stories, there is a deep-seated, almost manic, love for the sport and for what it means. Cyclocross isn't road racing, it isn't mountain biking, it's an entity unto itself and with it comes a unique culture that Tim Johnson, one of the greats in the sport, laughingly described as "unscented flypaper." As he explains: you don't know what you're getting into until you see it for yourself, and then you're stuck. Welcome to American 'cross. For a beer-drinking cowbell-ringing mud-slinging good time, look no further than cyclocross, or in this case, Mud, Snow and Cyclocross: How 'Cross Took Over US Cycling.