One hour in hell (Cyclocross)

S

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Cyclocross- the dark side of cycling. CX was originally the road racer´s winter training, and so the races in the northern hemisphere traditionally take place between October and February. It´s always cold and muddy on the course, except when it´s frozen. The races last from 60 minutes for the elite men category to shorter distances for youngsters, seniors and women. The only race tactics seem to be to ride as hard and fast as one can. I could see the quintessence of the sport when a U 15 (under 15 years) kid crashed in the mud. Within one second his expression changed from almost crying to race furor again, instead of whinging he just jumped on his bike, and on he went. It´s a very passionate thing, also for the spectators, I love it.

All pics with Nikon F100/ cheap Nikon Zoom 28-80 AF-D/Tri-X @ 800/ XTOL.
[FONT=&quot]Small wet prints “scanned” with RX100.

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Skinny tire bikes in the mud!? Now that's kind of silly! One heck of a workout I bet.

Great photos!
 
Saul said:
The rider in the third pic looks like a young Eddy Merckx -- go cannibal!
Click to expand...

Yes - definitely! The cock of the head.

Bike racing is really hard; cyclo-cross strikes me as really, really hard, though at least it's short. "One hour in hell," indeed.

Nice pictures that capture the essence.
 
Very cool! Another sport for mad people. I'll have to look it up and see if there are any events in the area here.

Love the look of these photos. Very classic. :)

G
 
I used to shoot moto-cross many years ago, and this looks like the same thing without the hot mufflers and loud noise. Great action shots.

PF
 
The images you've posted here are wonderfully done, classic look to them. However, if you want to keep with the original title "One hour in hell", then I think it would help to add a lot of images showing the "hell" part... maybe some close-ups of crashed rider's faces, or skinned-up legs... you know... "agony of defeat" stuff swathed in hellish-ness! :)
 
Thank you all for your attention and your kind words!

@B-9: skinny (up to 33mm) tires in the mud were the way to go until the mountainbike appeared. Cx is more than 100 years old.

@Jamie Pillers: You are right, of course, from a photojournalistic point of view; the title may promise more than the pics can keep. But I could not find a title more snappy.
I just can´t take pics of suffering people. One could call it "respect", I always feel someone agonizing needs no camera shoved into his face, be it in sports or in "real life", and so I´m missing that photographic killer instinct. That´s not generally speaking, of course, just my own attitude.
 
straightmp said:
@Jamie Pillers: You are right, of course, from a photojournalistic point of view; the title may promise more than the pics can keep. But I could not find a title more snappy.
I just can´t take pics of suffering people. One could call it "respect", I always feel someone agonizing needs no camera shoved into his face, be it in sports or in "real life", and so I´m missing that photographic killer instinct. That´s not generally speaking, of course, just my own attitude.
Click to expand...

Understood… I'm the same. :bang:
 
Imaginative title but I almost missed the thread through lack of interest in "hell", maybe if Cyclocross had been in brackets?
Wonderful pics, aside from the modern looking bikes these remind me of reading Cycling Weekly as a schoolboy 50 years ago :)
 
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