Ed Sander Memorial Cyclocross presented by NCVC is one of the oldest cyclocross events in the Mid-Atlantic. The course has changed here and there over the years but nothing like what riders showing up for race #5 in the BikeReg.com MABRAcross Super 8 Series will experience this Sunday. Gone are the long gravel drag strips and the fun but sometimes daunting drop in [UPDATE: New intel confirms that the drop in lives! And is joined by a tricky off-camber left turn]. This may be good or bad news depending on your strengths. What remains is a revamped course that centers around a new prologue, finish line, more twists and turns and a better announcing area. Food vendors and a moonbounce will also be centrally located. And the lilypons will still be featured. The idea is to create a technically exciting course that embraces the festival atmosphere the Super 8 Series promotes.
Check out the map for details on the new course (click on it for a larger image).
Ed Sander Memorial Cyclocross new course design
And if you just want to see what the grounds look like, or reminisce about the past, here is the video preview for last year. Again, this is NOT the course you will ride on Sunday. For all of those who do not read this and just click the video, I’ll patiently await your Monday morning e-mails telling me the preview was wrong.
Every race in the MABRAcross Super 8 is breaking all kinds of attendance records this year. But DCCX is just getting ridiculous. The 2011 edition saw more than 800 pre-registered riders and over 900 on race day. Once again, the men and women of DCMTB served up a beautiful summer weather, in late autumn, and the party at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington D.C. lasted all day long. Changes to the course added some excitement and definitely made riding more of a challenge.
So here’s some video. It features the stairs, the “big air” section and the new off-camber U-turns. And for the record, I did not come anywhere close to getting in the way of Ryan Dudek (He has a history of crashing when I’m around and have a camera). If he can’t take his eyes off me and ends up bobbling I can’t be blamed. Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful, Ryan. Okay, that will soon make sense. Go watch.
DCCX, Washington DC’s cyclocross party, happens this Sunday on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home. If you haven’t registered, you need to do so ASAP. Online registration closes tonight, Thursday, at 9:00 p.m., and many fields are selling or sold out. In fact go register now. As always, we will wait here until you get back.
For the most part, the men and women of DCMTB and Family Bike Shop follow the same course as last year. But there are a couple new twists and turns that you need to see. There is also a new prologue and start. My helmet-cam skills are a bit rusty so the angle is a little lower than I would like. To make up for that I have included in the preview video two concurrent views. One of the newly designed course and one from last year’s race. This should give you a pretty good idea of what’s going on.
The significant change to the course is a double-u turn section on the hill that last year had a barrier at the bottom. The barrier is gone but the technical difficulty has gone up considerably. How great is it when your race has a sponsor, Terra Lawn and Landscape, that can carve out a nice clean new feature on your course? So jealous. Also, the start is on the other side of the course. Farther from the parking lot. So give yourself a couple extra minutes to get to staging and make sure you don’t line up at last year’s starting grid or you will miss your race.
It’s going to be a great day of racing Sunday. Can’t wait to see everybody out there.
Thanks everybody for coming out to Hyattsville CX. We had around 600 folks racing and could not have asked for a better day. It may have even been too hot during the afternoon races. Crazy.
The little modifications we made to the front side of the course seemed to be universally applauded and although a lot of people got a little too close and personal with the muddy wooded section, the new feature was a success.
Let us know what you thought so we can make the race even better next year.
Until then, here’s a little taste of what went down at Magruder Park this past Sunday.
Last Sunday’s Winchester Apple Cross was hard. It is a challenging course in the best of conditions. Throw in a couple inches of rain the day before and it turns into an excellent mud course. For the most part, the entire loop was ridable. Superior technical skills, however, were a plus for some of the greasy off-camber sections, and those with some power in reserve had an advantage through some long deep mud stretches. The rain also turned a lung-busting run up into a lap-by-lap game of king of the hill. With traction hard to find, most racers were covering the same ground at least twice as they waddled up the “Belgian Wall.”
I was able to sneak away from announcing duties for a bit during the 3/4 and 1/2/3 races to grab some video. It’s below. Thanks for watching and see you Sunday at Hyattsville CX, sponsored in part by CXHairs.com.
Winchester Apple Cross, race #2 of the MABRAcross Super 8 Series, is this Sunday. The Winchester Wheelmen have once again put together an outstanding event, featuring a technical yet fluid course and a great atmosphere for a full day of cyclocross fun. The course preview relies on helmet-cam video from last year’s race. As has happened for every race so far, the organizers have changed things up a bit to make the experience even more awesome. If such a thing is possible.
It is great that promoters are doing this. Instead of just throwing down stakes and tape, race organizers in the Mid-Atlantic that “get cross” are learning from year to year what works and what doesn’t on their courses. Don’t take this for granted. It doesn’t happen everywhere. So if you like the course on Sunday, tell those folks in the orange and blue Winchester Wheelmen kits. And, if there is something you think can be better, let them know that as well. Just, you know, be cool about it.
Here’s a map of the course:
Winchester Apple Cross 2011 Course (click for larger image)
And here’s the preview. Thanks for watching. See you Sunday. Buy some socks.
Had this up on the Tumblr account, which you can find at cxhairs.tumblr.com and believe it is worthwhile to post here, too. It is a short public service announcement intended to clear up some confusion in the cyclocross community. Compare and contrast.
The Tacchino Cyclocross went down yesterday at Rosaryville State Park. Although over 600 racers prepared diligently for mud and rainy conditions, the day offered up no such nastiness. A couple spots of the slick stuff on the course kept everybody honest but no rain meant the bouncy castle was packed with kids and the party was full-on throughout the day. Was it like cyclocross is “supposed to be” in the dank and rain, with chain-smoking, tuba playing Belgians lining the tape? No. But we don’t live in Belgium, and personally, I prefer watching races on sunny days. I know, blasphemy.
Between announcing races, wrangling podiums and getting on my bike and suffering for a spell, there was not much time to pick up a camera, save a couple short clips of the tandem race. That race featured the still unbeaten duo of Adam Driscoll and Pat Blair, the up-and-coming North-Tek Aria pair of Nick Taylor and Andrew Shelby, the ALAN elite we-already-won-our-races squad of Erin Silliman and Greg Wittwer, and a cameo from Trek-Livestrong’s Joe Dombrowski on the Money ‘n’ Stuff Racing rig. The North-Tek Aria squad definitely gave the Adventures for the Cure team a run for their money, grabbing the hole-shot and keeping within a bike length of PADAM most of the race. In the end, the AFC boys took the win but this rivalry is one to watch in upcoming Super 8 tandem races.
Here’s a quick taste, a sampler if you will, of what it looked like.
Tacchino Cyclocross, the first race in the BikeReg.com MABRAcross Super 8 Series, is this Sunday and I’ve been told several times by Jim “Unholy Promoteur” McNeeley that a course preview wouldn’t be worth the ones and zeros it was recorded on because the course is unrecognizable from last year’s edition.
We know that the course Squadra Coppi has in store for us will be run in reverse, there will be a run up on something called “Hup Hup Hill,” which is one of those things that sounds more pleasant than it actually is, and it’s supposed to be hard. On the plus side, when you’ve finished racing, or if you come out for the spectating, the run up will have a party tent featuring DJ Adam Austin. And, as always, there will be sausage premes (with Tofurkey), and a kitted out turkey, who may or may not have fallen off the wagon.
Instead of trying to go through last year’s video and point out all the things that are different, I will merely post the image stabilized helmet-cam from the 2010 race and let you enjoy the sunny pastoral environs. Because if the weather gods have their way, sunny is not in the cards for tomorrow. Make sure to pack your Wellies, a poncho and two pairs of shoes (you will thank me for this extra pair of shoes when you get back to your car for the drive home). Also bring a couple large plastic trash bags to throw all of your muddy things into. Seriously, after you finish racing, strip down throw it all into the bag—kit/shoes/gloves/helmet/glasses/towels/regrets—tie it up and throw it in the car. Bring some baby wipes for you (using a couple on your poor muddy bike after hosing it down won’t hurt either), and then go enjoy the races. When you get home, dump the contents of the plastic trash bag out on the lawn or driveway, hose it all down and then throw it in the wash. Just make sure you don’t forget about that muddy, grungy Hefty bag of ick sitting in the car for too long. Discovering it as you pack your car for next week’s races is not recommended.
Here’s the 2010 Tacchino video. Thanks for watching and see you tomorrow at the races.
There was this ice cream truck, no doubt drawn by the crowd of seemingly undernourished folks in the middle of Baltimore’s Druid Hill Park, who spent most of the day course-side at Charm City Cyclocross. It’s a free country, and I’m not one to turn away from a good ice cream sandwich or drumstick, but the music, oh, the music. It was an eight hour barrage of “If Your Ears Hang Low,” on a loop. I don’t want to think what the guy in the truck did to cope with that inside his skull all day, every day. So for him, and all of you who parked near that truck, this video is dedicated to you.
As for the racing? It was phenomenal. Sunday in Charm City was the perfect autumn day. Moderate temperatures, sunny skies and a kickin’ cross course. The big guns put on another great show and the seventh year of racing in Druid Hill Park goes down as one of the best.
Next week is Tacchino Cyclocross in Upper Marlboro, Md. If you are there, come say hi. I’ll be the guy with the microphone.
Until then, here are more sights and sounds from Sunday’s race.
