WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD WOLF?

Update: photo of the Big Bad Wolf taking a chunk out of an obliging Kougar butt.

Yeah, it's a sweaty and stinky race bib. What do you expect racing cross in 80 degree awesomeness?

Who's afraid of the Big Bad World? Well if you're talking about the Cyclocross race in Midland, this past Sunday, on 10.10.10 (great date!) not me. And I wasn't the only one. There were plenty of West-Siders, East- Siders, and people from parts unknown for this first-ever race. Thankfully they had a really good turn out, and put and a tremendously enjoyable event. The same crew is putting on another race coming up on the weekend of the Mad Tony race, so check it out, if you've got the gas money.

Day at the beach, or day at the races. You take your pick. Some racers did both.

As I said it was a hot one, but thankfully the course was super fast so it kept you cool - well somewhat cool. The course was designed by Brian Hancock and was an absolutely blast to ride. For those of you who used to race the Ithaca Grand Prix, you'll know first hand that Brian is a master at throwing down a course that rocks. This thing was a joy to ride, and a beauty to look at.

Yeah that's some air under the dude on the left. These two riders are so excited about catching me (just ahead of them) they can't even keep their wheels on the ground.

The West Michigan Grapevine says that Cupcake took a Top Ten in Cincy this weekend!

Before I get too long gone on the BBW, reports from Cincy on day one say that Laura M (Cupcake) snagged a top ten! No they don't give medals for top tens, even at UCI races, but they should, dammit. This is file photo from a week ago at Munson. We haven't heard what she on day two, or how other Michiganders made out racing in the big time down in Cincy. Hopefully better than the Bengals. Losers.

I hear buzzing. Jeff what's that noise? Will you kill it for me?

Amy warmed up just by standing near the guy who spun up for two hours warming up for his C race. (There's been a lot of that this year.) After a flying start Amy (wife of Slayer aka Mujer de Machete) had a freaky slip and fall in the turns around the off camber section (can we sue somebody over this?) took out her shifter and was done for the day. A real heartbreaker Amy - you were rockin' it and were headed straight for the top steps of the podium.

Slayer loving his bike. Before he hated it.

Jeff (aka Slayer) was kickin' it with the big boys. No Sandbagging here. He joined the fray with the usual suspects from Tailwind's Elite Race and gave a bunch of them a serious spanking. While he ended up in the Top 5, a crash screwed up his brakes and he rolled with a pad rubbing so hard it dug a red line into his tires for the last two laps. Tough guy. Just showing off. The Slayers did have some bad luck. Best to get it out of the way now, as the season really gets rolling with hot races coming up in the next few weeks.

Trees. I see trees everywhere.

While there was some magnificent rolling hills, off-camber, run-ups, sand-blasting on the front side of the course, the back-side offered some high-speed weaving through the trees. If you think this looks slow, you'd be 1000% wrong. It was full on the gas between the sticks.

More trees. Yeah more trees. And more hard, yet smooth ground where you could whip it good.

Here I am thinking about trees.

Here I am heading into the trees.

Here I am almost hitting the tree. Yeah it's right in front of me.

If there weren't trees, there was sand. Quite a bit of sand. I saw one guy ride into the lake and drown. Well he didn't drown, but he could of, okay.

Tom Burke throwing up sand like a dune buggy. He won going away. Tom, this season, is awesome.

Heather rides around the trees instead of straight into them. She knows what she's doing.

Never satisfied with anything but perfection, Heather, I mean Killer, I mean Kougar, hell I mean Heather, gives us her post race-face. Maybe she was just tired.

To cheer her up the promoters gave her medals for kicking ass in two straight races. Still she appears not to be satisfied. They were for second place ( I think), and in Heather's book that's "first loser." When she wins she's not even happy. To her, first place is "first first loser." What the hell Heather.

Heather after she learned that the medals were solid gold and that that precious mineral is now over $1300 an ounce. Apparently she's in it for the money, and not just for the joy of suffering.

Brian Krause with Burger Number One.

Now on with the eating. It seems that no cyclocross race can even thought of being held in 2010 without free brats, burgers, and free beer. It must be in the new UCI rules, it seems to be such a constant. While some of us had a burger, a brat, and a sip of beer, Brian upped the game and went for one burger after another. This is burger one.

The apple is just a palate cleanser.

So we caught him eating one healthy thing. That means nothing. After this he went on a total burger-binge. He claimed he only ate a burger for each race he competed in. (Kinda of like CD had a beer for every lap completed at Caledonia).

Yeah, that's another burger. Two or three?

According to my calculations, and according to Brian's own admission that he ate a burger for every race he participated in, he did about 8 or 9 races at an event that had only 5 races on the day. How he ever counts laps in a KISSCROSS races is anybody's guess. Maybe that's why he nearly always rides a tandem.

Anyway there was only one other living creature that had more to eat than Brian at the race Sunday ...

And she threw up ... but that's what dogs do.

Great day at the races. Wonderful job by the Big Bad Wolf people. Hope we will see some photos from Cincy by tomorrow. Hope everyone had some good riding this weekend. See ya Tuesday, ya Bastards.