Naive about cycling

[Goodland]

I will be the first to admit that I was naive about the vastness of the sport of cycling. Here in eastern Canada there was not much cycling exposure of any kind until Lance was mid way through his string of Tour wins. At that point we began to get some television coverage, but since Lance retired we are now limited to coverage of the Tour de France only. That being said, I have always loved cycling so I was fascinated to see the professionals racing! Since that time I have discovered CyclingNews and found that there are many more forms of cycling than road and mountain, such as madison (still not sure what it is!) and cyclo-cross. I find cyclo-cross very interesting (based on my limited knowledge) and wonder if it is a sport that has had much exposure here in the past and if there is any movement to have events/races in North America in general, in Canada specifically.

 

[Dan Gerous]

It's getting more popular but mostly in Ontario. I'm in Quebec and cyclocross is almost inexistant, only a few Quebec Cups, nothing higher profile. I'm not sure about the maritime provinces... Toronto had a bigger UCI scale event last fall and that race is now part of a bigger US serie now (sorry, don't remember which one)...

But, you enjoy it and wish there was more? Try to attend what's already there, as a racer or a spectator, if there are lots of people at the races, sponsors will want to capitalize on it and it may actually help bring more races and bigger ones. I started racing XC last season and will try cross next fall, I also have a project along with a few people with new races and venues in Quebec (CX, XC and Marathons in the Eastern Townships, CX in the Montreal area) but the more people support the sport locally, the more it will grow here and coverage will also come. Following it on cyclingnews is great but there's nothing like being part of it. It's pretty cool to attend a race too.

 

[Alfred E. Neuman]

There's a pretty large cross following the US. It seems to have caught on best on the north east and north west coasts, and is slowly marching across the country. New England and the Pacific Northwest both have HUGE cross series, and it's a rare state that doesn't have some sort of cross series in the fall.

Depending on what part of Canada you're in, you could check out some of the racing in New England.

There was supposed to be a World Cup round in Maryland a couple of years ago, but that fell through.

 

[Kirsten Robbins]

North American Cyclo-cross

I grew up amongst the cycling scene in Ontario. Grass roots cyclo-cross racing could be found every weekend in the Fall and there were several clubs to join that put on cyclo-cross clinics during the week and on weekends. A season schedule can be found at the Ontario Cycling Associations (OCA) website. Each Province has their own cycling federation website for information on cyclo-cross, road racing, mountain bike and track events etc

Canada does hosts several International Cycling Union (UCI) sanctioned events at the C2 level and last year hosted back-to-back C1 level events at the Toronto International Cyclo-cross races. The UCI ranked calendar of world-wide events can be found at: http://www.uci.ch under the cyclo-cross section.

The sport has grown significantly in the USA and hosts two main series. The US Grand Prix series (USGP) includes Kentucky's Derby City Cup, Mercer Cup and Portland Cup.

There is also the North American Cyclo-cross Trophy series (NACT) which begins at the FSA Star Crossed and Rad Racing GP and moves on to the Gran Prix of Gloucester, the Boulder Cup, ending with the Whitmore's Landscaping Super Cross Cup.

The USA hosts numerous cyclo-cross events at the UCI C2 level but it doesn't stop there. There is a large following of cyclo-cross, even at a more grass roots level. One can find a cyclo-cross event to participate in or spectate at nearly every weekend from September through December.

Hopefully we will see you out on the field this Fall

 

[Anonymous]

There's a description of the Madison here:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/track/?id=trackoverview00#events

 

[deeporbit]

SoCal Cross

Southern California has been seeing big numbers for 'cross races. There are two competing series and now there is talk of an All California Championship race. Year after year it just keeps getting bigger.