2014 Krossto-beer-fest, Or Crying Over Spilt Ale

Before I venture any further with coverage of todays race, I want to recognize the exploits of one individual in particular. This one racer, dressed all in Helen's orange, had an exceptionally fine-tuned beer radar, beerdar if you will. On the other hand, if it was not instinct that saw him take the beer line on each lap, maybe it was simply opportunism or, more likely cross-smarts. If that latter reasoning was the case, then he was clearly the smartest racer on the course at the time. I mean, unless you were racing for a podium spot and would be guzzling out of the winners' stein from the top step, this was your best shot at free brew all day. Without doubt he must have won the Most Likely to Recognize a Good Opportunity When He Sees It award in high school. If Miss H&S Bicycles had not run out of beer, or the race run out of laps, there surely would have been more than just the three photos below. Anyway man, well done, and ein prosit.

first pass

second pass

third pass

Will beer, in fact, keep you pedaling? If Miss H&S Bicycles is to be believed, the answer would be a definitive yes. She argued most enthusiastically for the carb-loading benefits of a mid-race beverage, and was quite successful in swaying many passers-by over to her side of the debate. Or wait, is there a debate?

 For now I want to take a minute and turn to the podium. I don't often get around to the podium since the awards tend to be given out while other racing is going on. This time, however, I managed both. I got shots of some men's podiums and then some women's podiums. All the while there was this guy standing next to me who was clearly having a hard time - his muscles were twitching, he was making nervous sounds, and comments about waste. He would close his eyes, look away, but always refocus on the podium with wide eyes. You see, all the while beer was dripping, and spilling, and splashing from cups, mugs, steins, and bottles. This guy was really on edge and barely under control. Finally he couldn't take it anymore and dashed to the podium where he lay at the steps and let the amber liquid cascade into his mouth. It was Krosstoberfest, and the beer was freely flowing. And spilling.

I know what you are thinking right about now, you're thinking "what is this? This post has nothing to do with cyclocross racing. It's just about beer." What you have to understand is that for some people the two go hand in hand - you can't have the one without the other. I promise that once the Flickr album is ready there will be plenty of non-beer related photos.

From the hundreds of photos, I narrowed the selection to 142 - click here for the album.