That looks really grassy! Did they mow it, or were the previous races part of the tamp-down crew?
I did two races this weekend. Grafton Pumpkin Cross, which was dry until the last race (which made the hill hilariously slippery). There is a massive hill that is usually “easy” to ride (totally do-able, but incredibly unforgiving), but this year their little surprise was a barrier at the bottom.
There was a flat spot in the middle that you could use to get back on the bike, but the advantage was minimal for the risk. I still rode it half the time, if only to amuse the spectators.
Overall, I felt pretty good and I was able to gradually chase down one of my nemeses in the last quarter lap, only to have him beat me by half a wheel at the finish line (and I was trying real hard to sprint for it). Ultimately finished 25/57.
1-minute recap (with lots of slippy/slidey at the end) if you please: http://pal-ax.racing/video/19/pumpkin-cross.mp4
Then I went to Chicago with my wife for Hopkins Park on Sunday (which switched at the last minute to Indian Lakes in Bloomingdale thanks to weather). I was so tired after Pumpkin Cross that an hour before start I wasn’t even sure I was gonna race.
I didn’t pre-ride, didn’t warm up and had a back row call-up. When the whistle blew, everyone rolled out slower than expected and there was a pavement to grass transition right before the hole shot where everyone was hitting the brakes. I was super confused at the hesitation and tried to pass as many people as I could at that moment.
The ground was pretty dry with a handful of energy sucking spongeland and some deep mud bogs. It was a race with mud, but it wasn’t an overly muddy race. (Nothing like Trek CX Cup, anyway).
In the end I was able to best a different nemesis PLUS I finished in the Top 10! 7/47. I heard them call my name rounding out the Top 10 and was like, uh, wtf? and then turned on the gas. The initial leader rolled a tubular and, while trying to recover his position, blasted by me and then blew up. So I was able to follow him for the last lap and use him to pass a few more people to pick up more places. It felt so good, considering how unexcited I was at the start.
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Mine was the last race so it was ridden in. A lot of it was mud though.
Jealous of the race sizes, biggest one I’ve done here was 25. It was a mud race/rainy day which probably kept some people away.
Nice job on the top 10!
Racing on the Nats course. It’s bumpy, the runups are rough and the descents are sketchy. And I got stung by bees twice in my first race. I only did 3 of 4 laps because I didn’t feel like getting stung again.
[Edit]. I guess they took care of the wasps. But I’m not feeling 100% and not gonna race again.
Down side: my racing was shitty today.
Up side: the Nats course is going to be so rad. Several days of rain and several hundred people riding it today only left a small strip of dirt that could barely be called mud. And it was only on the most popular line. No mud bog. Probably no frozen wasteland. The venue has great terrain with an upper section that could be a soul-sucking straight climb or some twisty bits that flow across the hill. A lower section that is horrendously bumpy in some sections and flowy and smooth in others. And in between is a 30’ high steep wooded section where I guess they’ve been given complete permission to plow through however they want. Today there were two run ups and two sketchy descents. Most people rode them but I think that’s because most folks here do a lot of mountain biking. I rode them but was white knuckling the whole time. They are definitely going to be gnarly at pro speed. They also threw in an extra down and up just for the SS and cat 3,2,1. The descent was 10’ from the top of the first run up and was a total “commit to the rut” situation.
This is likely to be an awesome race. Great terrain so they don’t need to do any bs. Maybe they won’t even have barriers. There weren’t any today and they totally weren’t missed. Didn’t hear a single person remark on their absence. Definitely the sign of a good, natural course.
Raced myself into sickness after 2 days and 3 races. Elite and SS A is back to back. Did that Saturday and it was brutal. Then Sunday did SS A only and ended up 3rd. I raced the ss with the flat bars and this course… was not good for them, but it was fun. So many road and fast bits. Now I’m dead with cross back and feeling like I have the flu.
Today’s Euro race was on a XC track built into the side of a hill. I think they said it was 300ft elevation gain per lap and they did lots of laps. I thought it would be super boring to watch, but I got into it. Don’t want to see every CX race on a course like this, but I think they have their place the same way there should be maybe one grass crit per season.
Did my first dry race this year. 7th out of 27. The course had a fun steep hill to off camber section.
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MVdP gonna MVdP. It was a great race to watch, though.
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I wonder if he knew he was going to do that when he was on the line or if he was nervous until 3 laps in when he realized the new kid wasn’t any faster than folks were last year and he could just ride away whenever he wanted.
I’ve been off for a couple of weeks, thanks to a weekend wedding, so I got back at it with a two-race weekend that had me performing at the top of my game.
Estabrook Park gave a sampling of nearly every variation of mud. Sloppy, sticky, swampy, spongey, and peanut buttery. The start was really slow and it lead into a significant winding section that kinda kept everyone at bay. My teammate got the holeshot, and then he and I traded places for a bit before he took off. Lots of people had mechanicals thanks to the mud pile-up, but I got away “clean.” Lost a 3-way sprint through a swamp for 10th place and ended 12/37. It’s a really long course that has a lot of nice features. A questionably-ridable railroad tie, mud hill, a tall stack of limestone steps and a muddy, barely unridable run-up.
On Sunday I returned to the Battle of Waterloo for the first time in a few years and raced hard, but also had fun by heckling people around me. One was a friend who didn’t get to pre-ride. He got ahead of me on the run-up, which rounded into a drop-in section, where he rode the brakes hard. I passed him and shouted that he could take it faster next time. Two laps later he got ahead of me again on the run-up (I am SO bad at run-ups) and at the drop-in I shouted “Off the brakes, buddy!” Eventually he ended up beating me, so I probably shouldn’t have been advising him.
The other was a bit weird cuz it was a guy I didn’t know. We rounded a corner and I cut it tight to try to get ahead of him. He almost slips out and I congratulate him for staying up (and not taking me out), but coming out of the corner into an off-camber section he super aggro ran me up the hill and into the trees. I yelled up to him, “I’m sorry I complimented you!” Then I followed him around a few more corners until another open area and said to him, “Let’s see if I can make it stick this time.” Never saw him again. Finished 13/27.
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I read an interview from him about the race and he was saying that his engine is good, but he doesn’t have the hard accelerations yet.
Video from our last race we put on. We have a buddy that works for the city that comes out to our practices and races and films stuff for a city-sponsored segment.
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Good to hear reports from the old stomping grounds. No CX for me this year but hope to get in shape enough next time. Turns out Iowa does not do the grass crit thing. Too many convenient nasty hills. Does not favor fat dudes on SS bikes…
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Ya can’t be handing up full tallboys and asking for them to be passed back! Fill up half cups for more easily slammable portions.
The video of staking and taping an hour before race brought back some nightmares, too.
spur of the moment with the handup. haha. the guy with our trailer showed up 50min late, so we scrambled.
Any kind of morning-of staking seems insane to me. For our first race we staked the night before and it took FOREVER. Then we taped in the morning and that took a couple hours. Pre-riders were trying to guess which stakes they were supposed to be going through while the tape was being put up. We barely pulled it off in time.
The next year we staked and taped all the night before, but had some neighborhood vandals bust up some of it. Unfortunate, but not too bad.
This year we were at a different location on private land, so our course designer got most of it set in the week before. Once we got there, it was mostly just a matter of setting up the tents. Super chill.
Our next race we will be able to set up the night before. Most of our parks do not have gates around them and it is hard to guarantee they will be there when we get back there in the morning. This next park, luckily, does.