Cyclocross, Blade Runner, Mad Max and Beer: The Bilenky Junkyard Race

Cyclocross is sweeping the cycling world.   Bike manufacturers are rejoicing and local clubs all over the USA are hosting grassroots races that are single-handedly restoring the “community” to the bike racing community.

Stephen Bilenky of Bilenky Cycle Works is doing his part to incorporate as much fun and creativity as possible to his annual Bilenky Urban Cyclocross Race.

Thanks to race organizers like Bilenky, cyclocross races are not blindly adopting the attitudes and formats of traditional local criterium bike races.  The one consistent theme, however, is that everybody is there to race and aren’t afraid to suffer in rainy, muddy and cold weather.  Bring the pain!

Somewhere deep in the bowels of the US Cyclocross Republic, Bilkeny’s Urban Cyclocross Race is more akin to Blade Runner, The Road and Mad Max than to the lycra and carbon fiber images we associate with bike racing.  Racers ride through tractor trailer beds, past boats, through toxic puddles and oil stained cement.  This is, hands down, the most creative race in cyclocross.

******  Watch their Huffy Toss here.  ******