Gallery: Cyclocross Championships Are Muddy Mayhem With Beer
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*Another lap ticked off as riders pass the start/finish line at the Cycloross World Championships, held in the United States for the first time ever.*
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*And they're off through the Stargate and onto the tundra of a frozen grass-mud course marked by rocks and roots.*
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*Chika Fukomoto, racing for Japan, fell off the pace and was pulled from the race without a finish.*
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*Lucie Chainel-Lefevre of France found traction hard to come by and went down in a slick corner before the run up. She regained her position and placed third.*
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*Spaniard Javier Ruiz De Larrinaga, takes it all in at the finish, after an excruciatingly hard, and muddy, slog through the muck.*
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*Captain America and Thing 1 check out the scene. This was the first, and probably last, time the CX World Championships have come to America, and the fans went nuts. Costumes, flags and beer were almost mandatory.*
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*Chainel-Lefevre, rebounding from her crash, drew upon focus and fitness to make it through the peloton to the podium.*
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*A fan checks in with mom while walking the course holding a poster of his favorite racer. The fans were like that in Louisville.*
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*Ramps called flyovers are another obstacle racers ride under and then over repeatedly. They're always near the beer garden so fans can see the racers, usually hub-deep in mud or in the trees.*
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*The #CX Girls cheered on the racers, the fans, the city of Louisville, the state of Kentucky and pretty much everyone in America even as they taunted the flooding Ohio River to back off.*
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*Super fans from Belgium thought Americans did OK with their sport. Their champion Sven Nys won the elite's men's category.*
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*It's* Ja, gelukt! *— “Yes, job done!” — after Mike Teunissen won the U-23 category with enough room between him and the second place finisher that it didn't seem they were in the same race.*
