Erik Mathy attends the 2025 Singlespeed Cyclocross World Championships, SSCXWC for short, in Minneapolis, one of America’s cycling capital cities, with a unique camera with an infrared filter to capture the chaos. What better way to document the all-inclusive cyclocross party of a lifetime? Welcome to the annual SSCXWC, a place where sanctioning bodies are neither needed nor wanted, and gettin’ weird is the name of the game.

SSCXWC: Birds of a Feather

Come fall, typically in early to mid-October, something special happens. As the temperatures start to drop and the leaves change colors, a migration begins. While nature is full of such things, like geese flying south, this one is a little bit different. OK, no, I take that back – it’s a LOT different. Unlike the geese who instinctively go to the same place every fall, this migration changes destination. The participants also pack custom decorated speedos, sequined dresses, bullhorns, band leader hats, and bikes with no gears.

This migration is the yearly cavalcade of racers to the Singlespeed Cyclocross World Championships. Part lunacy, part racing, and all heart, SSCX Worlds is a traveling race that dials the “normal” cyclocross tradition of loud crowds, beer handups, and demanding courses upwards a notch… or five. The host city is decided by farcical feats of strength at some point during prior edition of the event. Last year’s event was held in Madison, WI. The hosting competition was therefore, logically, a cheese curd eating contest. Chelli, representing the Minneapolis faction, ate/choked/lightly vomited her way through the most curds and thus won the right to host the 2025 edition in her beloved city.

Different Flavors

Every SSCX Worlds has its own flavor. I’ve now been to 3 in a row: Santa Cruz, Madison, and Minneapolis. Santa Cruz, led by Paul Sadoff framebuilding protege Brendan Lehman (Onko Rinkus Bicycles), was a sunny, trippy, brass instrument-playing, circus-like affair. Madison, led by “Papa Goon” Gavin LaFave and his 2 Bit Bicycle Goons crew, was a friendly, beer-soaked, 4-day sample of some of the best cycling and hospitality that can be found anywhere.

Chelli, along with Nikki, Renee, and Kadence, forming an all-female and non-binary team of organizers, worked over the course of the last 12 months to put on an extraordinary event. There was an informal bandit cross night race for the early arrivals on Thursday. Friday featured the official welcome ride to a lake (see: speedos), followed by live music, food, dumpster tattoos (which were NOT part of the official event lineup but happened anyways), and a late-night ride to a secret party stop. On Saturday, things got real with the Feats of Strength. For the uninitiated, your starting spot at a SSCX Worlds is not dictated by your speed, placing in the prior year’s race or anything else. No, no, no.

Where you start in a SSCX World Championship is decided by Feats of Strength the day prior. Every organizing group comes up with 4-5 different stops spread out around their city. At each one, there is a physical challenge of some kind. This year, there was a team sand castle building contest, a swingbike race around a water tower, a bucket of water team relay race, and an air mattress race across a local lake. Those who did well received Poochie Buxxx, a Monopoly-style fake currency. Those with the most Poochie Buxxx got a higher placement at the start line on Sunday. Racers could also barter, flatter, and good-naturedly wheel and deal their way into more Poochie Buxxx if they so desired.

It should also be noted that an SSCX World Championships is one of the only cycling world championships in which the party the night before is required. This places the onus on the organizers to put on a REALLY good party. The Minneapolis organizers held theirs at the Southside Preservation Society, with a host team pedal art car challenge, a live band playing punk rock karaoke, and a DJ to close out the night. Honestly, punk rock karaoke backed by a band has never even crossed my mind. Now that I’ve witnessed it, I am mildly obsessed.

Race Day

Sunday was, of course, the big day. Race day. The one event that everything was building up to. Held at Buck Hill, a small local ski hill, the course went uphill, downhill, through tight and twisty woodsy singletrack, over man-made mountain bike obstacles, had a kicker jump onto an inflated landing ramp and a boat crossing. That’s right, the 200+ racers in attendance had to climb up, over, and down the other side of a boat. I have a solid imagination, but some things I cannot make up.

All of this in the wet and the rain. Did I mention it rained on and off all day on Sunday? It did. Which caused course designer Renee and her team from Handup Racing to do some quick modifications in the name of safety. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt, which nobody wanted.

In the end, three new SSCX World Champions were crowned after some exceptionally tight races. Chloë Spritz took home the women’s crown after a tussle with Hannah Solberg. Charley of war-torn Portland, OR won the Non-Binary class. For the men’s race, after an intense battle between two Brians, Brian West held onto his crown after an insanely strong challenge from Brian Bierman.

As I watched the trophy tattoos go on the new champions at the closing party, I thought back over the prior 4 days. Earlier on, I mentioned that each SSCX Worlds event had its own flavor, a reflection of the people who had organized it. What was the Minneapolis event leaving me with? I couldn’t quite put my finger on it then, nor was I able to over the course of the week afterwards. There was something about this one that went beyond the “normal” post SSCX Worlds fun time glow.

While looking through my photographs and reliving little moments, it struck me: The organizers and the Minneapolis cycling scene brought their own distinct take on community building and racing to SSCX Worlds. One that, to me, is very special. You almost have to experience it to understand just how fun, playful, open, and radically positive it was. But in addition to all of that, the world is a lot different now than it was 2 years or even 1 year ago. It’s the juxtaposition of these two things that made SSCX Worlds really stand out.

SSCXWC: A Different World

There are people driving division for the sake of power and personal gain throughout the world, but especially here in the United States. Federal forces, including military, are being deployed against American citizens for made-up, farcical reasons. On the cycling front, Union Cycliste Internationale has continued to ban people from competition based on incomplete science and, to put it mildly, an older, outdated societal point of view. The US Olympic & Paralympic Committee has followed suit, while USA Cycling has taken both their leads out of cowardice.

This all adds up to very uncertain times. Not just here in America, but worldwide. And this cycling thing we do for fun and community, even when it’s in the name of competition, is no longer welcoming to everyone at the “official” level. In retrospect, I’m not sure it ever really was.

But, for all of that, there remain bright spots from “unsanctioned” races like SSCX Worlds, Mid South, the Mt. Baker Gravity Series, The Heywood, Folsom Rodeocross, Little SLO 500, the RAD races, and tens of thousands more all over the world. I think SSCX Worlds Minneapolis hit me so good, so hard, because it stands out in such a stark contrast to what the establishment is trying to create as a standard: Hostile, unwelcoming, uncompromising, and self-serving versus welcoming, open minded, joyful and transparent.

With “unsanctioned” events and series throwing down such amazing, high-quality, community-building experiences, the question arises: Do we even need sanctioning bodies anymore? After my time at SSCX Worlds Minneapolis, my answer is this: For the 99.999% of us who will never, ever compete at the national or international level? Absolutely not. We don’t need UCI or USA Cycling. From their actions, they don’t seem to believe that they need us, either.

So the next time you’ve got a hankering to race your bike, maybe cast your eye outside of the walled-in world of sanctioned events. Who knows? You might just come away with friends from all over the planet, a new tattoo, and a world title to show for it.

About The Photos

I took these images using a Nikon D810 DSLR that’s been converted to full spectrum, and then filtered to the 470nm infrared light range. Modern digital cameras have filters over their sensors which reduce the lightwaves it can “see” to the visible light spectrum. They also help tune the image to be in line with what the manufacturer, say Sony, Nikon, Canon or Leica, want. But when you, or preferably a qualified technician, remove those filters? It allows the sensor to see everything: UV, Visible, and Infrared light. The photographer can then tune the image down to a specific band of light with a filter over the lens. In this case, the 470nm filter is a mild colored infrared band that replaces most blacks and greens with purple.

Why? Two reasons. I’ve long been obsessed with color infrared film photography. I saw Richard Mosse’s coverage of the civil war in the Congo using the now-defunct Aerochrome color infrared film and was hooked. Since the film is gone, digital will have to do. And secondly, a SSCX World Championship is a playful, surreal affair. This particular IR treatment casts it into that weird but fun feeling that I get when I attend one. Plus… it was just fun for me, personally. I love shooting different mediums and formats. Now I can add infrared to the list!