A very muddy cycling video round-up + parrots & goat alien things

This is pretty much the only time of year that you'll hear us complaining that it's not a little darker, wetter, colder. The summer's gone, but it's not yet autumny enough - read: wet enough - for us to really get stuck into cyclocross season.

We want mud.

And mud is exactly what we've got for you in today's video round-up. We start off with three particularly sludgy videos, two of which are cyclocross oriented, and the third is a little bit of comedy. You know, to lighten up your friday.

We then move on to Astana, not the capital of Kazahkstan, the cycling team and its unofficial mascot Frankje the parrot.

We're then off to Scotland to explore Cape Wrath by bike, Germany to see what weird and wonderful street experiments they're undertaking with mechanical alien goats this week, and we then pass by San Francisco for some seriously fast paced alleycat action.

Finally, we swing by Kentucky to hear Cherokee Schill's story about being arrested "for riding her bicycle to work."

Cross Crusade 2016 - Some serious Oregon mud

Over in Oregon, US, the River City Cross Crusade took place last week and if this video's anything to go by, we're on the wrong continent for late October cyclocross fun.

This video may be in black and white, but we got the brown vibes - don't make that weird - from it despite the clear lack of brown. 

If we weren't already itching to get out onto the slopes with our wider-tyred machines, we certainly are now.

Cyclocross Ardioe 2016 - Full colour mud + lake of mud

Just to renege on our previous comment that we are on the wrong continent for October cyclocross fun, it turns out Belgium - the second country to give the sport the credence of a national championships - do cx racing quite well.

It was pretty intensely muddy over in Belgian town Ardoie this week, as this Polish rider found out. 

Again, we're jealous. Very jealous.

Cyclist kicks partner into muddy river

We're not quite so jealous of this lady, or her considerate man, either.

We've been talking about wanting mud, but only controlled mud. None of this, please.

Astana mascot/parrot Frankje returns

...mitico Frankje!!!!! pic.twitter.com/LcSOFf1Wlh

— Michele Scarponi (@MicheleScarponi) October 19, 2016

If you're not acquainted with Frankje, you must be a road.cc video round-up newcomer. The parrot is famous round these parts.

He's grown particularly fond of Astana rider Michele Scarponi who will occasionally upload videos to Twitter of his escapades with the peculiarly affectionate bird.

Beulah - Cape Wrath cycle exploration

If you're going to go on a cycling holiday, the very northern reaches of Scotland probably isn't top of your list.

That didn't stop Pannier and Brother Cycles heading out for an adventure on the most north-westerly part of Scotland: Cape Wrath.

They went unsupported, found loads of wilderness, stayed in tents, and drank a lot of whiskey.

Slow alien bike goats in driver experiment/art

Before you leave confused, this is a cycling video.

These mechanical alien goats are a piece of performance art/an experiment to see how drivers react to seriously slow driving conditions to give them some perspective about sharing the road with slower modes of transport.

The idea is: show drivers how slow driving in cities could be so that they aren't as wound-up by being stuck behind a cyclist traveling at 20 miles per hour.

We wonder how these goats would go down in London. Would there be any weird alien mechanical goats left?

Fast footage from Extra Features

Keep your eyes peeled, there's a 60-minute edit of all the shots Mash Transit Productions has captured of San Francisco's city alleycat fixie riders between 2012 and 2015 dropping on November 1. If it's anything like these clips that didn't make the cut, it'll be worth watching.

It's certainly a change of pace to the previous video.

Why would police arrest a cycle-commuting woman?

Finally, meet Cherokee Schill. She lives in Kentuky, US, and she rides her bike to work because she doesn't want to spend all the extra money it takes to run a car. Fair enough.

However, Cherokee doesn't have too many positive things to say about her switch to cycling, instead she talks about the terrible cycling conditions in the southern American state. Chilling.