There aren’t many bunnies hopping around Beban Park these days, but their memory lives on with the Hot Cross Bunnies cyclocross race.
The Cross on the Rock series stop comes to Nanaimo’s Beban Park this Sunday, Nov. 4.
Cyclocross is a sort of hybrid bike racing, with athletes using racing cross bikes in decidedly off-road settings, riding through mud and sand and sometimes dismounting to hop over obstacles.
Sunday’s weather forecast calls for periods of rain, but riders will be able to handle it after some of the Cross on the Rock racing last Sunday at Lake Cowichan took place in a downpour.
“Cyclocross was born out of nasty conditions, so there is some masochistic appeal to riding in the sand and mud and rain,” said Grant Lestock-Kay, one of the organizers of the Lake Cowichan series stop. “And some definitely embraced that.”
Devin Fawkes in the beginner men’s category and Peter Mogg in the masters men’s division were two winners from Nanaimo last weekend at Lake Cowichan.
Sunday’s Hot Cross Bunnies racing starts at 10:45 a.m. and culminates in the expert men’s and women’s races, which will be held concurrently at 2:15 p.m. Registration opens at 9:15 a.m. with race-day registration ranging from $25-35 and free for kids. A beginners’ cyclocross clinic will be held at 10 a.m.
For more information, visit www.crossontherock.com.