registration closes today:
https://www.bikereg.com/whirlybird-cross

come race.

Unfortunately I'll be out of the country this Saturday and for two weekends. I wish I was racing this course though.

Tough break today.

Drive with Eric Ragot, with this weather, both could have skipped the race, but neither was gonna be the first to admit it.

Obviously super slippy, muddy muddy, wet course.

Jeff reports a top 20, Jill looks amazing and post race says "hardest race I've ever done" We leave as Jim and Harry start their race, they look like the hotness.

Starting to get decent MAC call ups, surrounded by heavy hitters, feel like I can totally race them.

First corner holeshot, Johan Anested slips, crashes, and takes down the guy in front of me, I hit his rear wheel, endo over the bars, my hand into his rotor, so much fun! someone bangs against me... hand has a mini cut but seems fine, jump back..., rear doesn't spin, not even, takes a moment to figure out wtf, brake seriously stuck under the rim -- by the time I fix it, everyone's gone gone gone goooooneeee. SO. MUCH. GONE.

According to Strava/TP, crash happens 25 seconds into the race, I was at a stop 49 seconds. 

Jump back, let's do this, start passing, yadayada...

Barry Jones has become a buddy and a carrot, he has beaten me a couple of times, and so have I. He finishes about 45 seconds ahead. 

HPCX I am so coming for you.

OUCH! Glad to hear you made it out unscathed. Hoping to make it out one of the next 2 weekends. Now were did I leave my glue...?

This will be the first MAC race of the 2017. And registration is open.

Let's do this!

https://www.bikereg.com/whirlybird-cross 

What's a MAC ?

Mid Atlantic Cyclocross.

It is a series of races, which traditionally, Kissena riders have targeted (and won)

Point standings will affect where you line up. So attending the first race can matter.

MAC 2017 Series Calendar

• Race #1: Whirlybird CX — Sunday, September 10
• Race #2: Nittany Cross (UCI) — Saturday, September 16
• Race #3: Nittany Cross (UCI) — Sunday, September 17
• Race #4: Cooper River — Saturday, October 14
• Race #5: HPCX (UCI) — Saturday, October 28
• Race #6: HPCX (UCI) — Sunday, October 29
• Race #7: Fairhill CX — Saturday, November 4

The other series Kissena races a ton is the New England Cyclocross (NECX) which Supercross is part of:

• CRAFT Sportswear Gran Prix of Gloucester: Oct. 14-15 – Gloucester, MA
• The Verge Northampton International: Nov. 11-12 – Northampton, MA
• Supercross Cup: Nov. 18-19 – Suffern, NY
• NBX Gran Prix of ’Cross: Dec. 2-3 – Warwick, RI

@eloy Are those official dates for Supercross and NBX? I've been keeping an eye out but have not yet seen 2017 dates for those races. 

Anyone wanna do 50 miles on their cross bikes?
https://www.bikereg.com/rocky-point-50

MaxThorn said:

@eloy Are those official dates for Supercross and NBX? I've been keeping an eye out but have not yet seen 2017 dates for those races. 

Those are the dates on both NECX and UCI calendar.

In the next few days I'll post a list of important races close to NYC (i'll post  them in the cyclocross thread)

some notes for tomorrow, as well as course map. looks super close to last year, but a whole new piece added on the south/left of staging

https://www.facebook.com/WhirlybirdCross/posts/1459833924114394

The internet tells me Whirlybird was my first ever CX race. 

Some early action. 

That was ridiculously fun

whirlybird was the hotness 

First time racing this course. Bumpy and fast like Nittany. 

4th row call up. I thought I heard 107 starters total. I had a strong first lap but misjudged my effort and spent laps 2 & 3 trying to limit the damage. I latched on to someone who was going slower than I would like but helped stabilized my heart rate and breathing. I was also riding the log except the one time I got jammed by someone  in  front me. I lost 3 spots there. Lap 4 I started feeling good again and passed a few people. The last lap I see Sebastian, sorry but I had to at least beat him. I caught and passed him by the first set of barriers and just kept going. I thought I would be in the tail end but surprisingly I placed 65th.

The best part, like in all races, was chatting it up with teammates and friends before and after.

First cx race of the year and the turnout in the women's B race was phenomenal, 39 registered!  My start was shit as I got cutoff from both sides and had to slam on the breaks in order to not slam into multiple riders.  I started to pick away one rider at a time and was feeling great until I dropped my chain at the very end of lap #2.  I think it took me over 2 minutes to get it back on as it kept popping off over and over!  At that point I think 15 riders had passed me.  So, I got on my bike, and was pissed off and not sure if I wanted to finish the race.  I went back and forth in my mind about DNFing and finally after a lap decided to stick it out.  At this point I think another 5 had passed me.  So, not my best performance, but there is always next time.  Charm City will our next race.

Congrats @ChristinaWoolston for a great first cx race! 

First CX race ever, as @JillWhite shouted out. Thanks for teaching me a few quick things on Saturday in the park.

So the race. In retrospect, and after looking at my lap times, I realized I had a similarly crappy start. It was crunched but didn't know it at the time because I had no clue what I was doing so I just kind of hung back. I had better luck with my bike than Jill did, since it was literally picked up 48 hours before the race. Shoutout to @Redbeard for setting me up with a new bike, shoes, and pedals on Friday night. 

Morgan from Foxy Moxy told me right before the race to think of Whirlybird as a crit on grass, she was right. It was a fast course, with little to no mud. By the 3rd lap I had figured out that most people in the field were for whatever reason nervous going over roots, so I knew I had to be ahead of them going into the woods. Had I figured that out sooner, I may have saved a minute here or there which would have evened out the seconds lost from mounting/dismounting like a toddler learning how to ride a bike.  It was a lot of fun, I finished 24th, and am looking forward to the next one with some improved skills. Which is TBD as my weekends are kind of jammed for awhile but am considering GP Gloucester next. 

Christina, reading your report, you are already a total CX pro! #somuchawesome

I wasn't sure how my recently-recovered ITBS would affect my performance in my first CX race of the season. Thankfully the knee pain didn't flare up during the race--but the two weeks I had to spend off the bike unexpectedly to recover from the original injury left me sucking wind. I finished more than five minutes behind the winner. At least I had lowered my expectations...

With call-ups by order of registration, the start was the mess I hoped it wouldn't be. I was third row, all the way to the right. On the whistle the guy ahead of me on the first row went straight backwards, and it felt like an eternity until I could safely go around that bag of bricks. Then on the very first turn--a wide left-hander, not even a proper holeshot--I had to hit the brakes to avoid a pileup. After that I just chugged along a grassy course (so grassy) that offered almost nowhere to recover.

What felt good? Barriers. I always pass at least one person. While my remount needs some work, I never had much of problem stutter-stepping. A big goal for my second season is to finally get rid of the "superman" remount. I nailed a few in this race. WhirlyBird had two sets of barriers: one uphill just after a u-turn, and another on a flat chicane. The first set was slow going. If I could do it again, I believe dismounting in the turn instead of waiting until I faced them head-on would have been faster. The second set was a better stage for the choreography we've all been practicing. There was a rideable log, but I ran it every time because I never got as clean of an approach as I practiced a few times on my recon lap.

Also good: I measured my effort well. All five of my lap times were within ten seconds of one another: 8:39, 8:37, 8:45, 8:49, 8:44. Looking at the last lap, at least I know I can count on digging deep when it counts most. Speaking of the last lap...

What felt bad? My quad began cramping just as I went through the second set of barriers, which were about thirty seconds from the finish line. I reckon this cost me about five or six places in the results. I thought I did a good job that morning eating, drinking, warming-up and stretching, but my body told me otherwise. 

Also bad: long, straight false flats on thick grass into a headwind. We all like ripping the singletrack at Cunningham but next time I go there I plan to spend some quality time on the thickest, most grueling, most boring ballfield I can find, grinding out 90-second VO2 intervals while telling myself that "cross is boss" or whatever people who like this kind of thing tell themselves. Seriously, how do y'all do it? I was dying for another set of barriers...praying for a sudden thunderstorm to turn the course to mud...anything but what was in front of me. Road racing ins't that far in the rearview mirror, so at least I remembered to draft. 

And then I reassured myself that there's plenty of mud and barriers (and grass) to come. 

Here's to a great cyclocross season.

• Rode to Whirly with Jeff and Jill
• Get there, Christina and her friend Carla offer encouragement and floor pumps
• Christina's bike is the hotness
• Preride one lap. Power course.
• Jill and Christina start. They look like the fire.
• I get ready to start, warmup, gels, whatevs
• Call ups got me third row in a 70ish field
• One minute. 30 seconds. GO!
• Start is not great, but not a total disaster.
• Spend 2 laps mostly passing people.
• This an ok course to ride wheels, but I am now all by myself.
• Eventually notice two large (10~15 riders) groups ahead of me, and another group behind me.
• Some strong legs on the group behind. Can't let up.
• Pedal, pedal, pedal!!! Heart attacks before slowdown!!
• In hindsight, those first two laps was me ditching that group. I'll never catch the group ahead.
• Rode that log all 6 laps
• Lap times 7:57, 7:59, 8:06, 8:14, 8:14, 8:08
• It is awesome to hear my name all around the course, whoever you are, I appreciate it tons
• with 2 to go Scotty Roberts bridges up to me
• Scotty is super friendly and encouraging, he has waaaay more friends than me, and the next 15~20 minutes of our lives are full of "go scotty!!" "scoooter!!!!" "scoooootttt!"
• I do most of the work, but Scotty does contribute
• One to go, Bob Piacine catches us from behind
• I'll lead the first half, 'til past the log, with them on my wheel -- not the smartest move, but I really don't want the rest of the group behind to catch us
• Feels like Scotty is the strongest, then me, then Bob. Real life has other plans.
• Bob attacks the last half, opening a small gap.
• We are now full bloc, full gas
• Scotty mostly on my wheel
• Heading into the last corner, I am finally back on Bob's wheel
• Hit the corner full on, there's a dibit, my rear wheels skids...!!!!!!!
• FUUUUUU
• Ok whatevs.
• Still, make no mistake: OMG. That was a blast!
• Bob, then Scott..., and...., 2..., 3..., 4... seconds..., me -- I take comfort knowing Bob is a Cat 2.
• After catching our breath, wide smiles and fist pumps are in abundance.
• Post race, somehow flatted/destroyed my rear tubular with a major sidewall cut. 100% ugh, but if you are gonna flat, post race is better.
• Later, ate a bunch of grilled cheese sandwiches and a ton of truck tacos, spent time with Jill, Jeff, Jaime, Keith, Bryan, and took some photos under a hawke. I'll post the photos later.

(photo by Don Madson)

(photos by me, duh)

some of my photos in the TBD report:
https://www.tobedetermined.cc/journal/2017/9/whirlybird-cx-race-report

Registration for Whirlybird is open -- Sept 9th, 2018

Cat 4/5 start grid is by order of registration.
https://www.bikereg.com/whirlybird-cross

I'm signed up.

I'm also down.

Wow, you guys registered really early. Something tells me this is a good race.

RobertPeras said:

Wow, you guys registered really early. Something tells me this is a good race.

Your position in the starting grid has a huge influence on your result. If they are seeding the grid in order of registration you need to register early.

The bigger races use cxresults points, which is a whole other barrel of penguins.

OK, I am convinced. Signing up now. 

Registered - looking forward to it!

@RobertPeras it looks like you are in for this weekend and may have space?  I think @MaxThorn and I are looking for a ride.  Please let us know if there is an opportunity to carpool.  Otherwise, a car rental will be in the works.