It seems like the online cyclocross world (in the U.S. anyway) is all abuzz about the success of the first race of this year’s Portland-based Cross Crusade series, thanks to a huge turnout (more than 1,200 racers) and wet weather.

I’ve already seen some great still photos of the event, and now there’s this video, produced by Dan Kaufman at CrankMyChain.

This nice compilation of Bart Wellens/Sven Nys moments was posted a couple of weeks ago on YouTube. I’ve seen most of these clips before, but it’s well put together, and gets big points for using the Johnny Cash cover of Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt as a soundtrack.

It’s a little bit early for any substantive video coverage of last night’s Cross Vegas race, which did not feature a big showdown between Ryan Trebon and Lance Armstrong (who started in the fifth row), but I did find this short clip of Lance riding through a blizzard of camera flashes.

It looks like it was a great crowd and an exciting win by Trebon, so I’m looking forward to posting a lengthier video or two in the next several days. Now if I could just find a good clip of Greg LeMond hijacking Lance’s press conference.

Cyclocross season is here, which means its time for the CycloTube staff and our supporting team of offshore contract employees to deploy our complex plan for the constant monitoring of video sharing sites, and the cataloging and posting of all interesting cyclocross offerings uncovered by this process.

OK, actually it’s more like me sitting on the couch drinking beer and browsing haphazardly through YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and Google Video after I get bored reading about Ryan Trebon’s soon-to-be feud with Lance Armstrong.

This is what I was doing tonight, and just as it was really starting to sink in that most early-season cross videos are a little on the boring side, featuring mostly flat, dry courses ridden in warm weather, I came across this mildly disturbing piece of cinematic art.

It’s a clip from the 2008 Langtown Backyard Cyclocross Extravaganza, which is apparently held on the backyard motocross course of Bobby Langin, who is the gentleman drinking from the beer bong at the beginning of the video. While the clip from the after party does raise some mustache- and dance-related questions, the only question I have about this particular video is whether the guys on the tandem are running it the whole way because they are having trouble clearing the hills, or because they’re just too drunk to ride.

ZeroTraction, scheduled for release in November, features action from the 2007 U.S. National Championships in Kansas City. According to the film’s web site, it was shot entirely in high definition, and judging from this trailer they got some pretty good footage. The YouTube clip doesn’t really do justice to the video quality, so make sure and visit their web site and watch the QuickTime if you have a chance.

Registration for the USA Cycling ‘08 Cyclocross National Championships in Kansas City opens tonight (September 14) at midnight. The event this year is December 11-14, and it will be held at Tiffany Springs Park, which is the same venue as last year.

Here’s a video from last year’s event to get you in the mood. You can also check out this video of the ‘07 Elite Men’s Race in KC that I posted back in February.

Little Belgium, Andy Frothingham’s documentary on the 2007 New England cyclocross season, is now available for free viewing (all 40 minutes of it) on Vimeo. Check it out, and then visit his Little Belgium Movie site to make a donation or buy a copy on DVD.

I recently came across these two well-produced compilation videos posted on YouTube by the unfortunately-named “FacePubes.” They have some great footage from 2007-08 European Cyclocross races (mostly taken from Sporza TV), and include a lot of mud, some hairy crashes, and of course a whole bunch of Sven Nys.

Last season I rode in a couple of the Verge Dert Derby Tuesday-night cyclocross races here in Austin. You’ll notice that I said “rode” and not “raced,” because my participation probably didn’t rise to the level of what could honestly be called “racing.” I did have a great time, however, and am looking forward to the 2008 series. The races are well organized and reasonably priced, and racing at night under the lights is a pretty cool experience.

I have been meaning to post the Dirt Derby promo video for a while now, but hadn’t gotten around to it, and then Andrew at Pirate Race Productions sent me a link to this new 2008 promo clip, which does an even better job than last year’s video of capturing what the Dirt Derby is all about.

Racing starts again in September, and Andrew says that there are some other exciting cross-related things in the works, so keep an eye on their site.

I finally got around to watching my recording of this year’s Paris-Roubaix. PR is always an incredibly exciting race, with its storied history and agonizingly difficult terrain, and this year was no exception. Sure, the much-predicted rain didn’t come through, Tom Boonen shocked almost no one by winning again, and George Hincapie’s equipment failed less spectacularly than usual, but it was still great.

And of course I was struck again by how much more this race has in common with a cyclocross race than a typical Pro Tour road race. There aren’t any hills to speak of, much less run-ups, and the distance is about 10 times greater than most people cover in a one-hour cross race, but the road surfaces on some of Paris-Roubaix’s pave sections make a lot of cross courses look like a velodrome.

I wanted to post a video of this year’s race that captures how demanding this race is, but there’s not a lot out there that does it justice. The video that actually does the best job may be this one, which captures some of the teams doing pre-race reconnaissance on the notorious Trench of Arenberg pave section.

Note: This video starts off with some still images, which I’m not a big fan of on YouTube (it’s a site for videos, people), but it switches to video after a few seconds, so stick with it.