Hey girl in this picture, whoever you are, you’re my hero. Yes, it was an incredibly lovely weekend at the 5th Cross Crusade race this past weekend in Astoria, Oregon. For years, my cyclocross friends have been telling me to make to the halloween cross race, as the costumes are amazing, and the vibe is great. They were right. Not only did folks race incognito, but they acted the part, too. It was like I died and went to Wend heaven. The woman pictured above struck me as everything I value in a human being: hardcore, tough, artsy, creative, silly, unafraid, confident, and doesn’t take oneself too seriously. Yeah, you guessed it, she’s one of those stop-action-statue-street performer people you see all over the world. So, at intermittent places on the race course, she’d just all of the sudden freeze, hold her pose perfectly for about a minute (even made sure to hit the brakes to make sure the wheels didn’t spin), and then unfreeze and ride off. Awesome. At this particular spot, the barriers, she stopped and did her thing. There was about a 10 second lag time until people figured out what she was doing. Then, collectively, the crowd erupted in praise and beer was thrown willy nilly. But, that same crowd was extremely cruel to anyone who had the nerve to race without a costume. Every time someone came through with a regular race kit, the Boos were loud enough to hear a mile away. Other highlights included our intrepid Cycle Cross Diaries Host, Heidi Swift as the matador, and our oh so talented and oh so devoted videographer/editor Eric as a roman soldier. Big props to the pink guy on the minibike, the giraffe on the tall bike, the treehugger girl, and if the hipster looks familiar, it’s because he’s the hipster dressed as the hipster from the Performance video of viral fame. Click on pics below to see mo bigga, and stay tuned for Eric and Heidi’s video report of the race tomorrow. BIG PICTURE GALLERY AFTER THE JUMP.
