Staten Island Cross!

If you keep up with Bike Snob NYC - which you shouldn't, as he's ran out of witticisms and his blog posts serve only as a medium for a surprising volume of spectator idiocy - then you'd know that next Sunday, November 30th, New York City will see its first cyclocross race in over ten years.

Those of us who've never raced 'cross know it as a sport where in order to qualify for the post-race beer-drinking, you've got to spend about an hour getting cold, wet, dirty, and exhausted running, pushing, fouling, and occasionally riding a bike that's only marginally suited for the terrain at hand.

And we've also learned that everyone who rides cyclocross absolutely loves it.

The organizers of Nov 30th's Staten Island Cyclocross, however, seem to have missed last spring's Sludgement Day, a 'cross-inspired mudfest on the curiously out-of-the-way playground/construction site Randall's Island.

But, that aside, Staten Island Cross looks like it will be a blast. I'm going to race it on what may prove to be a wholely inappropriate bicycle.

Photos as I put together a semifunctional cyclocross bike and sack up and register to race will be forthcoming.