[flargle]

Is there any book (or website or video) that does a proper history of cyclocross racing? (Preferably in English, but not required.)

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[El Duke]

Check out www.blackbirdsf.org for some really off the wall old CX photos from Europe pre WWII. That's a start.

[flargle]

Those photos are epic.

[dirtyphotons]

wikipedia has a blurb about this. i think the idea's been around a lot longer than the sport, as such.

i like to think that before most roads were paved, yet cities were very dense with obstacles, that all cycling was some approximation of cross. ride, carry when you can't ride, hop back on and go. not necessarily for speed, but just to get where you're going.

as far as the competition, the wiki article references the book bicycle: the history (http://books.google.com/books?id=J1opX8cx6EQC&dq=&pg=PP1&ots=tqwxpYH6mF&sig=5CwGgsIO9NWSNT8btl3tMQcat1o&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fsourceid%3Dnavclient%26ie%3DUTF-8%26rls%3DGGLJ,GGLJ:2006-09,GGLJ:en%26q%3Dbicycle%253A%2Bthe%2Bhistory&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title) by david herlihy.

[Ronsonic]

Here's a piece of it: http://www.blackbirdsf.org/cx/christopheoncx.html

I know the prehistory goes to something like 1900, military messengers and the races they held.

Ron

[flargle]

I appreciate the links. The material on blackbirdsf.org is epic. But, without being too obvious, it doesn't come close to the level of scholarship that is readily available on, say, the Tour de France.

There is space for a history grad student to fill the gaps, write his dissertation, and publish a book. Perhaps this already exists in non-English form.

[i_r_beej]

Yeah, that stuff makes me want to ride a fixie. Modern crossers are a bunch of pansies compared to Mr. Christophe!!

Kind of like the early Tours de France-- THOSE were epic competitions. Hell-- they even took smoke breaks!! ha ha! These days it's hardly a sport-- masseurs, cars full of spare bikes, paved roads. Pffft.