NORMAL - Step in any winter day and you're likely to hear one word shouted across the normally quiet Vitesse Cycle Shop in Normal: "Cyclo-cross!"

Vitesse bike mechanic Chris Tuma is the local guru of the European-born sport that attracts a small, dedicated and growing following in Central Illinois. He's put his stamp on the Twin City version of the competition so deeply it's often called simply, "Tuma-Cross."

Correctly spelled with or without the hyphen, cyclo-cross is a marriage of cycling and cross-country running. The bike is hoisted over the shoulder and carried when the terrain gets too rough to ride. The biking aspect is a hybrid form of mountain biking and road biking.

Cyclo-cross season spans fall and winter. In America, the USA Cycling Cyclo-Cross National Racing Season kicks off in September and runs through January.

Twin City cyclo-cross races are held from November through February. As few as a dozen and as many as 50 men, women and children down to age 10 have trudged and/or pedaled their way through mud and snow and skidded on ice to complete a weaving up-and-down course. Beginners complete three loops around the 1.5 mile course. Advanced racers do six laps.

"We race no matter what the weather," said Tuma, 40, who recalled sweating through events when temperatures were in the single digits. "Part of the thing about cyclo-cross is the camaraderie - the real insanity. What are we doing outside let alone racing our bikes?"

The answer comes easily for recent cyclo-cross converts Roger Awkerman and his wife, Deb. Roger Awkerman, 49, is an auditor at State Farm Insurance Cos. and a longtime runner. He rediscovered road cycling after dropping out several years ago when his bike wore out. Deb Awkerman's brothers, Brad and Eric Schumann, are avid mountain bikers and they've tried to entice the Awkermans to that sport, too. No way.

"The feeling of trees coming at me doesn't appeal to me," said Roger Awkerman.

But he let Tuma's "Cyclo-cross!" call beckon him last fall when he went to Vitesse looking for a fun way to cycle that might appeal to his wife. A runner herself, Deb Awkerman was looking for a way to exercise her upper body, so the idea of pedaling and running over a cyclo-cross course carrying a bike seemed like a good one.

Unlike the road, where her husband is more experienced and faster, she said she is on equal footing with him on a cyclo-cross course. And, like her husband, she has no desire to risk injury with the extreme mountain biking her brothers enjoy.

"This (cyclo-cross) is borderline," she said, laughing.

"It's a challenge," agreed Roger Awkerman. "I'm totally exhausted when I've done. It is so much fun."

At age 16, Normal Community West High School sophomore Sean Hyser is one of the younger cyclo-cross competitors. He joined after Tuma pointed out how the sport would be great cross training for Hyser's other pursuits - cross-country running, track and wrestling. He's already competed in triathlons and he's completed a half Ironman. He plans to do a full Ironman, which includes a swim, a 112-mile bike race and a marathon, a 26.2 mile run, as soon as he turns 18, the age of eligibility.

He placed second overall behind Tuma at the cyclo-cross event in early January.

"It's fun. It keeps me on the go. It's good to be outside. I think it's awesome," said Hyser. "I just like to push myself, test my endurance."

Asked where cyclo-cross came from, Tuma tells a story circulating among cyclo-cross circles about how the sport was invented by the British Army to train soldiers to use bikes to move quietly and quickly along front lines.

In an article in Bicycle Trader Magazine, cycling author Gabe Konrad tells another version. He described how French Army Pvt. Daniel Gousseau spent Sundays riding his bike through the forests with a horse-mounted general, "sharing their love of the outdoors."

Gousseau invited a few cycling friends along on the rides and soon dozens joined in to ride the trails. Races began eventually. Gousseau became secretary-general of the French Cycling Union and organized the first French cyclo-cross championship in 1902. Konrad said the sport's popularity "exploded" when Octave Lapize credited off-season cyclo-cross with his 1910 win in the Tour de France.

Cyclo-cross can be done with bikes found in a garage, or competitors can spend thousands for a bike specially made for the sport. The Awkermans use hybrid bikes, a cross between a road bike and a mountain bike. Hybrids can double for use on recreational rides on Constitution Trail through the Twin Cities.

Tuma uses a modified hybrid bike with thinner, knobby tires than regular hybrids.

Bikes sold specifically for cyclo-cross look like road bikes but have more space between tires and frames to allow for mud buildup. They also have mountain-bike brakes that feature more space between brake and tire for the same reason. Cyclo-cross bikes are light and feature flat sides on the bottoms of their top tubes to make easier to carry. Cyclos bikes also have gearing designed to take on hills.

Tuma makes sure his chain is well lubricated to avoid rust because of the wet, often-muddy conditions. He also sprays his bike with the kitchen non-stick product Pam to make it harder for mud to adhere to working parts. Competitors are allowed to have spare bikes and pit crews to help clean one bike while the other is in use.

Most cyclo-cross courses combine stretches of off-road trails and pavement. But for safety reasons, the Twin City cyclo-cross events are held exclusively off-road at Twin City Wood Recycling at 1606 W. Oakland St., Bloomington. Tuma got to know the owner while looking for a wood supplier for his other sideline, making furniture from recycled wood. As a result, the course feature obstacles with names like Sod Mountain.

"It's r-e-a-l-l-y muddy," said Tuma.

The hill dubbed "R-1" is made from wood chips run once through the wood grinder. "R-2" is made of finer chips run through twice.

" 'R-3' is the really fine stuff," he said. "It's like powered snow."

The course also features Camelback Mountain, the Swamp, the Orchard and a Forest where competitors often lift bikes over slippery logs. Beware - the course changes from time to time when a bulldozer cuts away a side of a hill.

The techniques are easy to learn, not so easy to do. Riding up a hill of slippery wood chips often brings riders to a quick stop. You'd better be prepared to get off and climb by foot. Going fast on a flat stretch is often interrupted by a fallen tree or deep ruts that cause a bike to topple. Experienced cyclo-cross racers can dismount at 20 mph and lift their bikes to their shoulders in one fluid motion. Weekend racers, not so much. Falls are common, injuries are rare. But even a small cut has its advantage in cyclo-cross.

"We give a bottle of wine to the muddiest or bloodiest," Tuma said.

---

Cyclo-cross!

If you go:

When: The season continues today and Feb. 17

Where: Twin City Wood Recycling, 1606 W. Oakland Ave., Bloomington

Entry fee: A $5 donation is requested

More information: Call Chris Tuma at (309) 829-5659 or (309) 454-1541 or e-mail him at tumalog@verizon.net