Video: A love letter to the sport of cyclocross

If — somehow, for some reason — you’re not already fired up about cyclocross season, this video will likely get you there.

Filmed by Stephen Fitzgerald and published on YouTube by Rodeo Adventure Labs, it’s titled “Rodeo Cyclocross Love Letter,” and it begins in the video’s description with the words, “Dear Cyclocross, how do we love thee? Let us count the ways. You make us laugh, you make us w00t, you make us hurt.”

The video was filmed just over a week ago, on September 16, 2015, during the third competition of the Back to Basics Cyclocross Series in Golden, Colorado.

The short film — only 5:59 in length — gets to the heart of what makes cyclocross such a wild, daredevil way to race. Not quite mountain biking, not quite road riding and not quite BMX, it’s the perfect late-summer, early-fall discipline for the most agile gravel-eating riders comfortable with a road bike’s geometry, dancing, gliding and grinding over dirty, slippery terrain.

What the video’s YouTube description says, in fact, is perhaps even more accurate than intended in that light. Who hasn’t had a chuckle at themselves when caught off-guard by a tricky stretch of cyclocross terrain? What rider hasn’t let fly with a hearty cheer after crossing the finish, reveling simply in having remained in the saddle through the entire ride?

If you were to write a cylocross love letter, what would yours say?