dirty: CX at the Swandrome: Down-home grassroots cross and the long-awaited arrival of the little people.

One tiny racer conserves energy on the way to the start.

When the Corning/NoTubes Race Team found that Glenn and Marcia Swan and the FLCC needed some help putting on the beloved and traditional Swandrome Cyclocross Race in the absence of Buck Hill this year, LiLynn Graves took the lead in helping organize, and the usual army of stalwart volunteers followed suit, plus a few more. This annual event is NOT to be missed under any circumstances. Even if there's a UCI race going on in Rochester, trust me, you should be at the Swandrome. My apologies to Ellison Park, but I don't think too many of these little racers hold a UCI license, so their absence probably didn't detract too much from your fine event.
If you love bikes in general and you happen to really love 'cross, well, you haven't seen anything until you see watch these little people firing down the course. Maybe they are the purest racers you've seen. They have no fear. They attack without doubt and pass at speed in tight corners. Some of them have not learned yet what pedals are, not that this slows them, and many don't really think too much of brakes either. Equipment inequalities go generally unnoticed and unremarked upon. You're more likely to see training wheels than carbon-fiber tubulars. After watching these kids go, you can't wait to get onto the course yourself. Although you might wish that your barriers were only 4 inches high, like the kids' were.

We all did our best to encourage as many of these little racers as possible to toe the line on Sunday. I told my coworkers and LiLynn told everyone she knew with children. And I'm pretty sure Holly Monkman and Sara Barker did some good recruiting. They emailed listserves, they buttonholed moms and dads all over the area. Our friends Lynn and Eric Burns brought a whole SUV full of kids all the way from Elmira.

I think it makes all of our hearts feel like they're growing two sizes when we see these little guys and girls tear around like we do, and we hope that like us, they never really grow up, and never lose their love of going as fast as they can. We told them that they ALL were winners, but still a few parents got to teach some on-the-spot lesssons on sportsmanship, and downplay some sibling rivalry.
There were four races total-one for the littlest kids, one for the slightly bigger kids, and two for the biggest kids of all-the Masters/Juniors field and the Open riders. A few crashes caused some excitement for kids in all the races, and in the Open race a mysterious boy named Timmy Dannerman showed up and gave all the big boys an especially hard time.

Forgive me for not posting picture of the biggest kids racing, but I was out there playing too. Here's everything I have below. You can find more pictures and a video from Andy Goodell here and from Jim van Leer here.

If you are a results junkie, you can find those here-prompt fast posting as always from the professional crew of Mark Rishniw and Dave Heck.
Another helmet-cam video here taken by Ruth Sherman, my teammate, during the masters men's race-Ruth and I did a couple laps with them. Just for funsies.

Ryan Burns does a quick pre-race check on the way to registration (photo by Katie Nunnink).

The bigger kids' field awaits the starter's command.

And...LiLynn the starter springs them. Garrett Nunnink in Corning/NoTubes colors warms up for his first ever Junior's race-which went off at the same time as the Master's men.