If it’s anything like I did a few years ago ,it’s on a narrow park by the river , not technical at all 

This is not a very technical course, it benefits roadies and road fitness. Mostly flat, there could even be some benefit from being on wheels -- altho I would recommend just dropping everyone on the slower categories, or any of the categories

Traditionally, the first section from to the start is flowly, has a couple of tricky slow corners around trees, but generally long straight aways, and some 180 turns. The far section of the course is a little more technical, but not very technical, with two set of Belgian stairs and a bunch of off camberish corners. Sometimes they put in a few meters of sand, but it has zero effect as they would need 20 times more sand for it to actually affect the course.

I remember being on the course racing and thinking woah this feels just like the 15/15 microbursts.

Also, remember being on course racing, and omg dying

Haha got it. So hammer down, drop everyone and ride to glory. Will report back with how that works out

The canti boys !

Mark Taylor said:

The canti boys !

can he or canti?

Here's JP, Eloy, and Thomas in the 50+ 1-4 race 








and in the following 3 pics by @eloy
Jim in the 60+ 1-4 race, and James (5th place) and Thierry in the 40+ 4/5 race. 
Matt also raced last in the cat 5 race to 8th place.

By the time I got started we were racing in the mud. The course suited me and I was sitting on 3rd place's wheel with 2nd and 1st a bike length or two in front through the first lap and a half and we had a decent gap to another handful of racers. Going through one of the corners before the first stairs I tried taking a more aggressive line, lost traction and went sliding through the mud. I managed to get up and was running quickly again, but when I went to remount, my chain was off of the cassette. I yanked it back on, but lost a lot of places. My buddy Joe was racing single speed and yelled some encouragement my way, so I got back to work and clawed a couple places back.

I was pretty frustrated with myself because I knew I could do really well. Rather than bide my time and make passes when I knew I had the fitness and power, I was too eager to try and gain inches and ended up giving away yards.

The odd thing the race organizers did that confused me was started the single speed and juniors before the cat 5 race (Bike Reg had it in the opposite order). There were some junior and SS that were flying that my field never caught, but there ended up being a lot of traffic as my field moved through the others. Not entirely sure if they helped or hindered me personally, but I can imagine it effected the overall race to some degree.

Some pictures my wife took (I'm clearly not loving the weather in the first one)

Quick CRCX report

• Lined up with Tom and JP with about 35ish racers in the 50+ 
• Whatever NJCX points I had evaporated after my HPCX DNF, Tom is first row, I'm 3rd row
• I have an ok start, I can hear Tom swearing about something as I pass him
• I'm kinda in the front wheels for a moment, but quickly settled behind 12~14 ish 
• This is a good course to be on wheels, but somehow I am not on any
• keep pedaling
• there are two sets of Belgian stairs back to back, some people are able to ride both, most people are running the first set as it is taller, and about 50/50 running/riding the second set -- I am happy to ride the second set every lap
• As expected I slowly catch a rider or two, and similarly a rider or two or three pass as the race progresses
• The cat 3 race started 30 seconds behind, at some point some of them catch up too -- so it gets a bit confusing, but whatevs, try not to let anyone pass, stay on wheels if possible
• I see Tom is in a group that is slowly coming up and should eventually catch me
• I keep pushing "if they are gonna catch up, make them work for it" -- this strategy almost never pays up 
• ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  
• The group and Tom catch me as we get the bell, I keep the pace high, hoping someone will ride through
• It takes a while, but the group rides through, at first Tom stays behind
• but he too rides ahead in one of the long straight aways
• I am paying big time for "making them work for it" 
• A gap opens up, Tom runs both stairs but riding the second set does not appear to be an advantage
• A peek behind suggests the next rider is a few turns behind and no way he's catching me
• Inner voice 1: "Just finish here, behind Tom, teammates back to back, less than a half lap to go"
• I listen instead to inner voice 2: "No, dude, go catch them, push push push"
• I start to push whatever fumes I have left
• totally slip and hit the ground in the last off camber corner
• I can feel I hit my face, which by default is not good, but but doesn't feel too bad, so I decide to finish the last 800 meters to the line
• The crash costs me 2 spots
• Kudos to Tom who kept on keeping on
• After the race, and frankly how I feel today, suggests the crash was not too bad, just minor scratches on my upper and lower lip, no blood even
• While I appreciate that I was pushing and literally found the limit, I am a bit disillusioned that my 2022 CX campaign has been mostly a collection of expensive-ish crashes
• In any case, there is always next weekend!
• James, Thierry, Jim looked like the fire in the races a bit later

Let's go race bikes!