Comparing two crazy sports.

Oh wow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXo_e9buLww

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUgENaPPPBg

and a couple cyclocross videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkOhzvv-4vA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWGnM_1ViZA

That was my first reaction to the clips you might have just watched...if you didnt watch them do so now, they will smoke your brain. So, your first question you might have is "what the heck is this stupid sport?"

Well, its one of many events that RedBull sponsors and organizes called the RedBull Romaniacs. They are races, much like cyclocross, that tests more or less the racers body mind and spirit. The events go through the Romanian (hence the term 'Romaniacs') countryside, up mountains, down treacherous decents, and event features a prologue as the first event.

The prologue, looks, sounds and feels just like a cyclocross race. With stupid manmade barriers for the riders to 'try' and clear, large crowds, beer, European women, beer and loud audiences....You would think upon arrival..."hey this is just like Hoogerheide, only no."

While the prologue is more spectator friendly, the rest of the races over the four day event are more like gnarly mountain bike races. As said before, they feature grueling obstacles....such as mountains that the racers must traverse up and navigate down. While speed is the name of the game in any race....duh, finesse is also key. One simply can't gun it and run it through a rock garden that looks ridiculously gnarcore...Well, you could but would you? I think uhh, no. Would you gun it over a set of barriers in a cross race? Of course. Maybe. No?

Another thing I thought to myself is how...by Zeus's beard, did these crazy Euros' come up with this? I think they planned it to be as silly, stupid, gnarly, stellar, super-duper, thrilling, hard and crazy as possible. What other sport set out to do that a long time ago? hmm....it starts with a C and ends with -YCLOCROSS.

I see cyclocross culture spilling over into other sport venues and it's awesome. I feel this is just another inadvertant way for the sport to grow and gain popularity.