The Iowa City Jingle Cross World Cup course is legit. Muddy conditions, big climbs, fast descents, technical off-camber sections … Johnson County could be plopped down in the middle of Belgium and not be out of place. The number of exciting features on the course meant the crowd was spread out over the entire venue, so if it looked like the crowds weren’t huge on television, it was only because there was too much good stuff to see. Along those same lines, Iowans know how to have a good time. That was some fun good-natured spectating.

It was great to have the European riders in the U.S. to get a glimpse of how far we’ve come with American cyclocross. Hopefully next year, we get even bigger international fields … especially on the women’s side.

Speaking of U.S. riders, it was awesome seeing Katie Compton back on the top step. I knew she’d be back and to do it in the U.S. in front of a home team crowd was the best. If you missed the earlier post, here’s a quick interview with Katie.

Also, amazing to see the continued growth of Stephen Hyde. He keeps moving up the ladder and made a big jump yesterday with a top 10 finish in a World Cup event. Some words and video from Stephen are here:

A video posted by In The Crosshairs (@cxhairs) on Sep 25, 2016 at 10:06am PDT

And finally, it’s been great having Ethan Glading along to capture the action. Here’s his gallery from yesterday’s World Cup action.

This content and everything that follows for the next week or so is made possible by the amazing support of Orange Seal. Along with our other above-and-beyond sponsors: Easton Cycling, SDG Components, Verge Sport, Feedback Sports and Squid Bikes. As always, please click on the links, throw a tweet their way, etc. You guys know the drill.

This is all part of the ITCH Tour.

Thanks for following along.