Cyclephotos Cyclo Cross 2012/2013 Photo Book by Balint Hamvas

Balint Hamvas spent most of last winter ankle-deep in freezing mud, snow, sand, and rain, to take photos of cyclo-cross racing for this book, Cyclo Cross 2012/2013. To fill over 200 pages with all that is cyclo-cross Hamvas travelled to more than 30 races, logged up in excess of 22,000 miles and was woken by a 4am alarm far too many times.

The book is a comprehensive overview of the 2012/13 season, featuring images from all eight legs of the World Cup, all the Superprestige races, plus other highlights such as Koppenbergcross, Overijse, Namur, Scheldecross, Druivencross and the historic World Championships in Louisville, USA.

But it's not just pictures of racing, which might get boring, there's a photo essay chapter of a day-in-the-life of US Rapha-FOCUS rider Jeremy Powers and the book is given real character with a substantial smorgasbord of the interesting, weird, peripheral and inconsequential ephemera that surrounds cross racing.

There are pictures of close-ups of mud, tyre tracks in the sand, a saddle, mud, a skin-suit being hosed down, a discarded plastic beer glass, eccentric supporters, and even more mud.

Some might say it's just pointless pictures of pointless stuff, but if you watch 'cross racing or race 'cross you'll get it instantly. It's these pictures that give the real flavour and reflect the true spirit of the sport.

As you'd expect from a photographer the book is chock thick with images but to add a bit more depth to the photos each race is prefaced with a few words. These are kept brief almost to the point of being scribbled notes, or maybe describing a race via a beer analogy. Race results and winners are not always mentioned if that would get in the way of letting the pictures succinctly capture the essence of a cold damp Sunday.

There are longer tracts dropped into the book but as a snapper Balint admits that he's not such a great writer so he hands this wordy task over to others more suited. Stephan Wyman talks about the exciting times for women's CX racing; Simon Burney waxes lyrical on when it was the Swiss rather than the Belgians that dominated the podium; there's a nice thing about amateur 'cross in Belgium; and as a partner to the images of the USA Worlds a small essay on cyclo-cross in America.

The words don't get bogged down in themselves like you might in a Koksijde corner; it's all different, insightful and interesting stuff.

Conclusion

This isn't some book quickly cobbled together to cash in on the recent popularity of cyclo-cross. It's hard graft and passion in full-colour, high quality paper, hard-backed form. If you like cyclo-cross or know someone who does, you or they are not going to be disappointed with this book.

Verdict

Mud, passion and madness distilled into a hardback that won't disappoint any cross fan.