Oregonians take their costumes — and their ‘cross — seriously

More than 1,000 racers took the trip to Bend, Oregon, this weekend for races five and six of the River City Bicycles Cross Crusade. Sunday’s race was the Halloween costume race.

Oregonians take their costumes as seriously as they take their vegan, free-range hot dog handups – zealously! Probably 75 percent or more of the racers dressed up. And those who didn’t dress up faced the wrath of the hecklers.

Bend’s Adam Craig was the “highest placed racer in costume” (second place), wearing some sort of spandex Zentai bodysuit.

Asked how much awesomer the Cross Crusade Halloween weekend was than the races in Boulder, Craig said, “On a scale of one to one trillion, I’d say 868,472,000,000,002.”

“No, I’ve been to the Boulder races and they’re great. They’re just less costume-appreciative there.”

Bend locals Carl Decker and Serena Bishop Gordon (in costume) incidentally won the Mens and Womens A races, but the real contest, of course, was the costume competition.

The kid dressed as Adam Craig was good. But when he tried (unsuccessfully) to hop the barrier like his idol, he became a legend.

The Ironclad racers who sacrificed their race to dress up as huge cardboard cars were a good laugh.

The guys dressed as Canadian Champion Chris Sheppard with his numbers pinned on incorrectly were crown pleasers.

But our prize has to go to the guy dressed as a Chris King headset.