About 10 hours before race time, Matt Plush and Ryan Rickerts hopped on their bikes and decided to test the course that Plush designed for Oak Harbor’s first cyclocross event.
The duo didn’t expect any spectators at 11 p.m. but got one when an Oak Harbor police officer arrived on scene, naturally curious about the sight of two grown men donning headlamps and bobbing up and down in the darkness at Fort Nugent Park.
“He was like, ‘What are you guys doing?’ ” Plush said.
Other than a little miscommunication on the eve of the race, and some wear and tear left behind on the turf afterward, Oak Harbor’s first cyclocross event was a big hit Saturday, Nov. 22.
Landing a spot in an established regional racing series in a sport that has exploded in popularity in the Pacific Northwest in the past decade was a big test for Plush and others with the Whidbey Island Bicycle Club, which hosted the event.
Participants raved about the Fort Nugent Park site and course that sent riders through muddy trails in the woods, across open grass and up concrete stairs.
“It was hugely popular,” said Rickerts, founder of the Bellingham-based Cascade Cross Series. “It was quickly called the best course of the year.”
Cyclocross is a blend of road and mountain biking, involving various terrain from slick mud to smooth asphalt. The bikes are light weight so riders can carry them on their shoulders over logs and other obstacles or just better tackle a slippery hillside.
The bikes resemble a road bike but have knobby tires for needed traction.
“It challenges your handling skills,” Rickerts said. “The fun thing about cyclocross: You can crash and it’s usually no big deal. You usually just fall over on grass.
“It’s fun to be on the edge.”
Rickerts started his racing series in 2006 to give riders in Bellingham options closer to home. Cascade Cross is the smallest of four racing series in Washington.
Two are based in Seattle, which joins Portland as the two hotbeds of cyclocross racing in the Northwest.
Cyclocross originated in Europe a century ago and picked up traction in the 1970s in United States, where it’s experienced a rise in popularity since the mid-1990s.
The “Thanks Given’er” event at Fort Nugent Park drew 139 participants, an especially good turnout considering there were competing events in Enumclaw and Spokane the same weekend.
It was the fourth of seven races on the Cascade Cross Series this year in a sport geared around the cold weather months.
To his knowledge, Rickerts said it was the first cyclocross event staged on Whidbey Island and hopes it will be the start of a new tradition.
“People loved it,” said Oak Harbor’s Brad Nelson, one of the series’ top riders in the single speed category. “They really liked the facility. The kids could play at the playground while the parents got to race. Fort Nugent is a fun place.”
Nelson and his wife Cortni Thrasher both race cyclocross, which consists of a range of categories reflecting different skill levels for men and women.
Cyclocross races are designed to last about an hour based on calculations done on a leader’s lap time after the first two laps.
Fort Nugent Park’s course was 1.2 miles.
“I thought it was a great event,” said Plush, who lives in Oak Harbor. “It was very organized. It’s a lot different crowd than you have at other racing events. It’s a really low-key group.”
Plush would like to see it stick and join other popular off-road biking events on the island. Two notable mountain bike events both run through Fort Ebey State Park in Coupeville, Mussels in the Kettles in March and Cooking in the Kettles in May.
Plush and others spent part of last weekend packing down grass in areas at Fort Nugent Park affected by the racing.
The only impact they wanted to leave was a positive one.
