The Bilenky Junkyard Cross, held in a junkyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is perhaps one of the best known, most beloved and most often commented on cyclocross races.
Sadly, the 2015 edition—what would have been the 10th anniversary—has been cancelled. On the Bilenky Cycle Works website, the announcement reads in part that “[t]he 10th Anniversary of Bilenky Junkyard ‘Cross is on hold for a year. Venue rental and insurance costs have skyrocketed out of range. We’ll start saving our nickels [and] dollar handups, shop around for other potential junkyards, and continue to look for a generous sponsor for 2016. Maybe Bilenky Junkyard ‘Cross is the victim of its own success—but it definitely wasn’t suffocated by your love.”
It’s an unfortunate turn of events that we hope is rectified for 2016. Over the years the Bilenky Junkyard Cross served as SSCXWC qualifier and was the inspiration for a New Belgium Beer commercial.
For this installment of Throwback Thursday, we bring you the 2014 Bilenky Junkyard Cross, held a year ago this weekend. This interesting look back at one of the more entertaining races to ever grace the domestic calendar definitely caught our eye.
The video was posted to YouTube by Chris Heerschap, a photographer. As he notes on YouTube, he “shot over 1800 photos while at the race, and…found that when [he] shoots that many and make[s] extensive use of continuous shooting, all of the photos lend themselves very nicely to an amusing ‘time lapse’ type of video.” His photos were taken at 6 frames per second and the video runs as 12 fps.
