This week is Interbike. You know this because a friend of yours -- let's call him "R Mc" for demonstration purposes -- is attending and keeps publishing bike porn shots on Facebook and Twitter. Or because you've opened CN or VN in the last coupla days. Or you've figured out why BikeSnobNYC went dark. Basically, if you have the internet (hello, reading this?) then you can't miss knowing about Interbike.
It's funny, industry people will swear on a stack of Dugast tubulars that Eurobike is the real show, and that Interbike is really just reflected light. But 'Murca invented the 'Net, so we get to crow about our show nice and loud. If we want. I'm not there, so this is probably the last you'll hear from me on the subject.
Anyway, the undisputed highlight of Interbike is Cross Vegas. Actually there are apparently races every night this week, several on tarmac, but I don't know much about them, and anyway nobody will be shouting the words "world champion" during those events. Cross Vegas? Yep, gonna hear that a lot.
Cross Vegas is a silly course in a silly place, happening waaaaay too early in the season for the cream of the 'Cross crew. However, the same could be said of the Tour of Qatar, but it's still great viewing. Basically, it's the same thing, a race happening too soon in the desert, only with beer and dollar handups instead of whatever they hand up to the riders in Qatar. Probably camel's milk or real estate.
Like Qatar, the other main attraction is a drop-dead startlist...
Las Chicas: Nash, Miller, Day, Dombrowski, Gould, and probably several others I should be familiar with.
Los Hombres: Nys... (if I stopped there, it would be enough.) Nys, Wellens, Johnson, Powers, Page, Trebon, Berden, McDonald and Vantourenhout, to name a few. Danny Summerhill will be there to see if he can break his handup record. Really, that's where the action is at.
The race happens in the evening, Pacific time (yay!), a really unfortunate development for pretty much all of Europe. If you have any business to conduct with Belgians, try to wrap it up today; chances are they'll be useless tomorrow. However, the US gets a nice viewing opportunity, and I expect Asia and A-NZ to be there with us. Last I checked, Australian workplace laws only forbid drinking imported beer, so y'all Down Under, defo join the party.
Live video will exist, though it might be behind a pay wall. CyclingDirt is a video provider that I've not heard of previously, but apparently they'll be hosting several CX races around the US this year, and Cross Vegas is probably the headliner (except in terms of race significance, in which case it's really, really not). I love free video and it always sucks to have it taken away, but as usual, if they provide a *quality* experience, rather than just a frustrating and overpriced one (coughcyclingtvcough), then I would ask you to embrace it, as the sport needs every dollar it can get.