CX Ornot Recap: Candlestick Crucible

Ornot Goes Cross

The Bay Area Super Prestige (now run by SuperPro Racing) has been bringing hot CX action to the Bay Area since 2002. Ornot's CX season kicked off with back to back days of sandy and dusty racing at Candlestick with a course feature that often goes underrated: HEAT.

Candlestick Crucible Day 1:

Ornot showed up for both Men’s A’s and B’s day 1. A new Super Pro version of the venerable Candlestick course was loose, soft, and sandy. As the day went on our very own Adam Kesselman raced his way to second in the Men’s A’s!

Candlestick Crucible Day 2:

The ORNOT tent came out to save us from the hellish temperatures. We spent most of the morning cowering in the shade, drinking beer and watching Nich as he tried to decide if he was going to race.. Ornot. (spoiler - he raced)

Matt showed up nearly an hour before the Men’s A’s race, which was early for him. He filled his socks with ice (pro tip) and set off to crush in the Men’s A’s. Right before we lined up for the B's, we pressed Matt for some tips on the course. While he lay on the ground recovering from the heat he muttered a groaning, "Don’t do it!" Which, you know, was encouraging...

We packed our pockets with ice and watched Nich fill his bar bag with beer. Wait, we watched Nich put beer in his bar bag? That he had on his race bike? Huh?

We lined up in the starting grid, the whistle blew and we sprinted off into the hottest part of the day - 95 DEGREES! - while on the course some spectators braved the heat to spray us with water (thank you) and one saint kept trying to give out a ketchup hand up that I just missed on my penultimate lap.

Then something spectacular happened: “The Hand Down” was born. Taking the beers he had smartly stowed in his bar bag - Nich handed them down to thirsty spectators throughout the race - turning the tables on cyclocross tradition.

According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary: The Hand Down: a transitive verb. When a cyclocross competitor hands a beer or beverage ‘down’ to a spectator as they race through the course. Antonym: The Hand Up.

All in all

Nobody got heat stroke, one of us landed on the podium, we all had some beer, and had some fun, so it was a solid weekend of cyclocross. On to the next one!

-- Race recap by Mr. Will Gibby --