The long muddy race

Harriman state park — Last Sunday, athletes from the U.S. Military Academy competed in a cyclo-cross race held at the Anthony Wayne Recreation Area in Harriman State Park. The sport is a cross between regular road racing and mountain biking. Throughout a typical course, riders travel on paved surfaces, narrow dirt and mud paths, climb steep grades with their bikes held over their shoulders, and jump over obstacles placed along the route. The origins of the sport are varied. One, according to Wikipedia, is that European road racers in the early 1900s would race each other to the next town over from them and that they were allowed to cut through farmer’s fields, over fences or take any other shortcuts in order to make it to the next town first.