Volume 27, Number 2 - Wilderness Medical Society

for Work and Play Christopher Van Tilburg MD
Urbaneering with cyclocross
When I lived in the city, I sought out wild places in every nook
and cranny of the urban megapolis. Trail running was my
connection to the landscape. Kayaking, cycling, rock climbing,
and buildering (climbing the university brick buildings) were all
readily available from campus. Despite now living in a small
mountain town, my urbaneering skills (as in, outdoor adventure
sports in the city) just broadened to include the wild and crazy
sport of cyclocross (a high-speed off-road criterion with some
running and a scosh of mud).
Photos by Christopher Van Tilburg
Coaxed unexpectedly into a race by a friend, I pulled into the lineup
with no prior experience, using my girlfriend’s shoes (one size too small)
and by friend’s bike (once size too big). The mass start was disorientating
as I careened across a horse pasture, slid into a gully, peddled frantically
through a muddy canyon, and emerged in a field. Note to reader: a
key part of cyclocross is barreling down a hairpin mud slope, jumping
off your bike, hucking it on your shoulder, bounding over an obstacle,
running up a mud bank still with bike, and sliding back on the saddle.
All this joy comes in five, 2-mile laps around a fairground, equestrian
center, park, or any other spot of urban green space. Make that urban
brown space: did I mention the mud? At one race in the rain, a halfdozen
6-inch-deep, 10-foot-long puddles the color of a double nonfat
latte developed. We rode through them without pause, getting doused
with frigid brown goodness. One slope was so muddy, I had to put my
hand down in 6-inch-deep goo to climb the hill.
This vintage sport—started in Europe in the early 1900s when cyclists
added wide knobby tires to their road bikes to negotiate foul-weather—
has gone high tech and urban. Races have the festiveness of a tailgate
party, replete with cheering crowds, clanging cowbells, and tachycardia
into the mid-triple digits. But don’t be fooled: anyone can ride cyclocross.
Beginners and kids. Tandems, unicycles, and single speeds.
The best part: the bikes are multifunctional. They are similar to road
bikes, with burly mods. They zip through tight turns with a short
wheelbase, bound over rocks with a high-clearance bottom bracket,
run tubeless knobbies to minimize pinch flats, and sport old-school
mud-shedding cantilever brakes. The workhorse cyclocross stallion
will do double-duty as an overnight touring mount (add panniers), a
randonneuring steed (aka long-distance cycling), a daily commuter (add
fenders and flashing light), or wet-weather trainer (keep your carbon
roadie in the garage). Except for true mountain bike trails, these bikes
are built to tackle urban bike/ped paths, dirt or gravel backroads, or, yup,
muddy low-tech singletracks.
So, go get dirty.
20 WILDERNESS MEDICINE // Spring 2010