Cyclocross at the Greek Theater?
Every sporting event has it's legendary venues and events. Typically, these are "legendary" for their importance, scenery and difficulty. For some reason, we like things that are really hard. For golf, if you actually call it sport, there's Augusta. Tennis has Wimbledon. Football has Lambeau Field. Formula One has Monaco. Cycling has the Ronde Van Vlannderen. And Cyclocross has Koksijde and Koppenbergcross.
Here in Southern California, we get a cyclocross race in the parking lot of the "legendary" Greek Theater. Yes, I said in the parking lot of an outdoor music venue. The parking lot is grass, I'll have you know. Believe it or not this is one of the races that we all look forward to each year — it has everything we look forward to in SoCal: dirt, sand, gopher holes and plenty of dust. It's pretty amazing that the SoCal Cross folks cram such a great fun course into such a small areal. For all you rain and mud lovers out there, yes, we do things a little differently in SoCal. The Greek Theater is in Griffith Park and is centrally located to most everyone in the greater Los Angeles area. Being in the middle of the largest park in Los Angeles means that even non-lycra wearing folk might actually stumble upon the race and marvel at our fun and silliness.
This year the race was again a UCI race, which means that the big guns come out to play. Having the pros come out is always exciting and makes me realize just how slow the rest of us really are. I was lucky enough get to watch my friends race then hang out for the pro race and snap a few pictures. My favorites from the day are below, and you can see other cyclocross photos in the gallery.