The reason we were there.
This weekend just passed was all about Cyclocross for a select group of enthusiasts from around New Zealand. The weekend kicked off on Friday night with a few Belgian beers at Gothenburg—a Hamilton craft-brew bar / restaurant—with event organisers ‘The Pain Train’. Planning, smack talking, stories of days gone by, stories of days to come and general banter were dished out from one end of the group to the other, most with some sort of Cyclocross theme, but some with a smattering of Cross-dressing talk!?
Voyeur view from outside.
Saturday evening the group reassembled along with a bunch of others at Velo-Espresso (Hamilton’s bike and coffee spot) for the New Zealand premiere and second World showing of “The Cyclocross Meeting“, the latest from Brian Vernor (Pure Sweet Hell; Where Are You Go). Check out the latest issue of Spoke (coming very soon!) to see some more of his handywork. Coffee, cheesecake, wine and beer of varying nationalities went down a treat although it may not have been ideal preparation for the NZCX Champs the following day!
Prior to the showing of the movie, Rick reflected on his son Chuck's brain tumour and gave us a look into the world of a child cancer patient's father. Proceeds from the evening were donated to Chuck's ongoing treatment.
The movie itself basically follows Barry Wicks and Adam McGrath through some of their USGP season and then onto Japan for some racing and reflecting. Brian’s ‘artsy’ style portrays the ups and downs of Cyclocross racing perfectly, and with some great one-liners through the movie, it’s kept light hearted but after it’s finished you’re left with no illusions about how tough ‘cross actually is. It’s a hard arse sport and as Adam mentions part way through, you don’t get into cross for the ride, it’s purely about racing, period.
Pre-movie mingle.
Matt Keen, Velo-Espresso owner, coffee enthusiast, MTBer and good guy.
James Gurney (right) tries to sober up (?) with a coffee after a few quick glasses of wine. Perfect prep for the following day's race! James and his band of merry men (The Pain Train) pulled together the movie preview and the actual CX Champs event.
Special thanks to Velo-Espresso for opening up and allowing the use of their venue, Caleb for sorting a copy of the movie directly from Mr Vernor himself, the Pain Train for organising things and Rick for coming all the way from Wanaka for the weekend.
Full CX champs report to come!