BEND, OR -- The Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation has delayed the start of a weekly cyclocross series. With highs expected in the upper 90s, MBSEF's Molly Cogswell-Kelly says the course designer agrees it’s too hot to start the bike races Thursday as planned, "It’s a dusty course, and especially since we have not had any moisture and it’s going to be so hot, he said that if we were to race in that heat it’s going to really wreak havoc on the course," she tells KBND News.

Instead, the Thrilla Cyclocross series, a fundraiser for MBSEF, will take place September 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th at the Athletic Club of Bend, "It’s more of a fall sport and having it on the first of September just didn’t seem ‘cross’ enough."

Cogswell-Kelly expects 80 to 100 riders in each race, with two each evening, "The 5:15 race is kind of for the beginners. It’s just a little bit shorter; it’s a 30-minute race, opposed to the 6 o’clock race, which is kind of the more advanced riders and they go for 45 minutes."

Cyclocross is a form of mountain bike racing where riders must dismount and carry their bikes for parts of the race, "[There are] Obstacles that you have to go over, like barricades. Usually a cross race will have mud; and we will, believe it or not, even in the summertime, we will have mud. They usually are on single-track, some pavement, some dirt." The sport is very popular in traditional road cycling countries such as Belgium, France and the Netherlands.

To register for the race series, go to obra.org/schedule and scroll to September. For more info contact molly@mbsef.org or call 541-388-0002.