Great Pumpkin, The Cube, Some Random Comments on the Weekend Cross Races

It has been a pretty eventful weekend for local cyclists. We had another great day at the Cube yesterday with so much support from the City Rec Department, sponsors, volunteers, and participants. I am very grateful to Lana for her Cube video and post. Any meaningful thing I have ever posted on the blog can be traced directly to Lana and Jeff who have mentored me in this project from the beginning. I hope when people watch the video, they can get a sense of what a fun day this was for everyone. The Cube may never become a huge event, but I am very proud of our efforts and gratified by the positive feedback we receive year after year.  A number of people with broad cyclocross experience tell me the Cube is one of their favorite races anywhere. It continues to draw high quality regional talent as well as locals and first-timers. Kellen’s course got rave reviews from riders ranging from the newest to the most experienced.

Gabe Klamer was the winner of the men’s “A” Race yesterday, but Kelton made him work a little finishing second. Shae was the only woman to ride the “A” race and held her own among some of the faster men. In addition the content Lana posted earlier, we will be following up with a link to Heather’s Cube photos and perhaps some other odds and ends. If anyone has content or comments they want to add, let us know.

The night prior to the Cube, Jeff, Kelton, Kellen, and I went down to Idaho Falls for the Great Pumpkin Race. It was the first time I had ridden at the Community Park.  The venue has some fun features including a number of little hills, but the course was a little rough around the edges. It included a sand pit in the parking lot at the bottom of a little hill which was constructed by filling a 2 x 4 frame with wet heavy sand. If the sand did not crash you, one of the buried 2 x 4’s was likely to. Many people, myself included, crashed heavily there. Kelton and Kellen finished second and third respectively.

Many of you are aware of the tremendous popularity of fat bikes among the Idaho Falls cyclists and several of them rode fat bikes at the Great Pumpkin. I mentioned this to Scott Hurst last night and he proposed an interesting idea for next year’s Cube. How about adding one additional race: a fat bike only cross? Please let me know how you feel about that Idea. No promises, but anything is on the table for next year.

Gabe told me yesterday that there is a good chance that Victor Velo will be putting on Spooky Cross on Thursday night. That is a change from the original Friday night schedule. We will confirm that information as soon as we are able.