Halloween Bella Cross: A good excuse to bust out the pink fishnets (again)

By Heather Kirkby

Can bike racing get any more fun than this?

The Bella Halloween race at Soquel High represented everything I love about this sport: lots of fun people everywhere, Bella flair everywhere, crazy costumes everywhere, bicycles everywhere and a hands-down-killer-sweet-awesome cyclocross course that doled out plenty of sweat and tears.

Yes, another Sunday in cross heaven. I love love loooooved this course. Thanks to Jeff and Brent and all the awesome course creators and destroyers & race volunteers.

Highlights definitely included the scary corner full of tombstones and ghouls, the curb rollover, the off-camber descent with a few sketchy lines, the bomber-fast sections past the ball diamonds and all the Bella Love through the start/finish. I had a great race, feeling strong and very pretty in pink. My cx mojo went south in the final lap as I saw the girl behind me closing the gap. Argh, after all that work, I can't let her catch me! The adrenalin surged and I promptly crashed. That photo cracks me up. I love the dust trail.

Since pictures are indeed worth a 1000 words I thought I'd share the experience of this day with a few of my favorite memories. There so many good costumes I don't know where to begin.

Andie Mackie, Amy A and ??? definitely gave a solid performance.
Eyeball man was really freaky to look at.
Sabine was resplendent as the Queen Bee.
Don's car was possibly the most beautiful thing on the course:
The chain gang showed some impressive group-bike handling skills (Iwarmed up behind them for a long time because they were impossible to pass and fun to watch).

Until next time, happy trails...
At least it wasn't a real bare ass, like last year.
Kudos to all the great photographers! Thanks again to the race organizers.