Gallery: Thrills, spills, dirt and Canada’s best ‘cross riders at the 2015 Canadian cyclocross championships

It’s impossible to deny: in Canada, cyclocross is here, and it’s here to stay. If you need evidence of that, last weekend — Oct. 23 to 25 — at The Forks in Winnipeg, Manitoba was a testament to the thrilling staying power of this intrepid cycling discipline.

‘Cross brings together a spectrum of riders from a range of backgrounds, from road to mountain bike. In essence, it’s all about the purity of the competition, involving techniques that even those whose experience extends only as far as urban riding can share. Whether you’re biking on the beach, the trail, or a nasty, pockmarked stretch of alleyway asphalt, the last-minute need to dismount and hike-a-bike over obstacles, for example, is something that all riders have known at one time or another.

As such, the Canadian cyclocross championships in Winnipeg don’t just represent a simple sporting event. The weekend’s competition serves as a festival celebrating what two wheels can do — and in the ‘cross world, what two wheels can do is a lot.

Check out how the action went down at The Forks from Oct. 23 to Oct. 25, 2015.