Photos: Andrew Ivory

For a discipline steeped in history born from the Flandrian plains, New Zealand cyclocross is a mere bubba. But, before you know it, baby steps become bounding leaps (across barriers) and you’ve got a rebellious teenager on your hands. 

Now entering double digits, Huttcross was born out of the desire of an American to recreate the lung-searing shenanigans that he missed from back home. The ‘Go Home Yanqui Productions’ Independence Day Cyclocross Race was Wellington’s cyclocross debut and quickly evolved into a four race affair and the Huttcross we all know and love soon followed. 

Those who experienced the early beginnings, of which there were around 30 hardy souls, will fondly reminisce about the freedom that came with the naivety of participants and landowners alike. Smaller numbers meant a pot of homemade soup to dive into post-race as well as a free hand for cutting the turf in some premium greenspace. We were all on a steep learning curve and for those that hadn’t already cottoned on, the challenges of picking grass out of a full suspension mountain bike versus a specific ‘cross rig took just one race to understand and bikes with more specificity spread. Soon came the realisation that less traction equaled more fun and skinny tyres cropped up everywhere.

As New Zealand’s longest running cyclocross series, Huttcross entered v3.0 this year. Yesterday, the Season Opener kicked the door in on Winter 2018 and cranked the CX party up a notch with 230 groms and grown ups descending on Upper Hutt to kick the turf, including a huge number of cyclocross virgins ready to pop their cherries.

The riverside nook of Ngati Tama showcased a more open course than years gone by and  provided a fresh opportunity for teeth to be cut, lines to be dialled and hucks to be had as many got to grips with navigating drop bars between the tapes for the first time in a while.

Round one’s power course also threw in a remix of cheeky surface changes including the “Green Hill” which made a thirty degree pinch rideable but still zesty on the quads for anything other than opening lap heroics and kept the landowners very happy to let us keep playing on their lawns.

Moist conditions over the previous fortnight left everyone searching for creative line choices to maximise their own “green is good” experience, which was ever diminishing as the grades rolled through. The weather was wettest for the course setup crew around dawn but by the time ‘cross rigs started rolling into the car park, the stoke factor was running at an all time high.

Huttcross well and truly outstripped it’s capacity for rider callups with 80 riders bulging through the starting gantry for C and B Grades.

A visiting Melbourne Dirty Deeds CX regular jumped into the A Grade action becoming the first Aussie female to race on Kiwi soil ever. A lanky Canadian bunnyhopped the barriers every lap. The kids won the right to keep the ramp in their course in a sheer demonstration of democracy. A 17 year old grom schooled all his elders in A Grade. And after everyone had retired to the warmth, while the last bit of dirt was being swept off the walkway a young boy enjoyed riding around the park following the path those before had left.

The season has been well and truly opened. #crossishere 

From whence it all came.