Then Marc, I should be hearing you whistling as you pick of riders as you move up from the back row and moving up though the crowd. 

Good luck this weekend to all racing Charm City. Looks like we've got...

Eloy
Dale
Scott
Jim
Marc

Not sure I'm ready for the sand pits of despair, but the weather looks good, Peter has been asking for barriers in his kids races (4 races, no barriers this season for him. Forget "real cross weather," hard to call yourself a CX race without a dismount) and the organizer has promised such a thing, so I'm looking forward to the weekend too!

sand may be less of an issue, as it wont be as dry/hot as years past... October vs September. 

We'll see tomorrow while pre-riding, but other than lap 1, I should be able to at least ride sand pit 1 and 2 and then run 3 and 4. Maybe ride 1, 2, 3 and run 4. We'll see.

 -- if dry we will probably WANT to run them all on lap 1 traffic -- 

Expect them, and have a plan on how you will approach and ride them.

Gonna be awesome.

You guys are LIVING THE HOTNESS

Bros?

charm city day 1 report:

crashed by some rando on a mtb on lap 1 took me down. from that point, rest of the race was a bit of combo of having fun and feeling whatevs. course was amaze. the sand pits were all wet and basically irrelevant.  Only one flyover. #missprovidence

Tomorrow should be dramatically better. Looking fwd.

Brittlee finished third. It was so awesome to watch.

Eloy and I lined up for the 35+ race. Jim Feehan and Dan Strika's 55+ race was started a few minutes behind ours. I was in the 8th row (62nd), Eloy one row behind me. He was there nice an early getting in some good pre-rides. I was not quite as early, but did manage to sneak in a lap in my street clothes before the course was closed. Managed to "Cat 6" the flyover and slid backwards down the steep ramp and give myself a nice astro turf burn on my knee. That was classy. Other than that, the warm up routine was solid. Friday rains ensured thick, wet grass, with a few spots muddy enough to turn my Grifos into "slicks." Didn't bring muds, so I just kept my fingers crossed that a few hours things would tack up significantly.

And actually, this muddy situation was good for me. Because it forced me to "risk" going lower on the PSI than I usually do. So with 27psi in the front and rear (I know this is still very high for most CX studs, but I'm still a 154lb-ish guy who likes to put in 32psi in the rear), I lined up with my homeys in the back.

Charm City by far has the best/fairest/well thought out prologue loop of the season so far. I was *this* close to having a brilliant start when the jamoke in front of me couldn't clip in, then decides that looking down at his foot (forcing him to swerve to the left) was going to help. I was pretty vocal at this point. Not my finest moment, but yeesh, I saw a golden opportunity slip away. Still, good prologue loop, meant I still had a chance.

Nice course. Turns had tacked up pretty nicely, sand pits hadn't dried to the point of becoming too challenging, and there was just so much "pedal haaaarder" sections that my relative fitness made up for what I lack in the skills department. Good times.

I'm not ready to call this a "break through" ride for me, but I will share an interesting personal reference point that has changed since today. You see, ever since I upgraded to the 3s and found myself racing with Masters in the MAC series, I get caught, passed and dropped by the top three 55+ racers who start a few minutes behind us. A month ago at Nittany, the 55+ winner, Al Blanchard actually caught me, but then proceeded to NOT drop me. That was diff't than previous years. And a moment for me to reflect upon.

And TODAY the leader of the 55+ race was hunting me down with 1 lap to go and he came dangerously close a few times, but I was determined to NOT let him catch me. Not this time. And low and behold, I held him off as I crossed the finish line in 36th place out of 73 starters (4 DNFs) Not exactly a huge leap from my previous "personal best," but still a PR of sorts to be sure.

Anyway, I share this personal "milestone" because I think its a good reminder for all of us, well, lets be honest, "back row starters" that in order to keep that motivation high during training and racing, we need to look for more "nuanced" signs that we are improving from race to race.

Feehan, who got tangled up with some jamoke who almost did a header into the sand pits, and was forced to extract himself from that situation, ended up in 12th. Look for him to crush a top 10 result tomorrow for sure.

BrittLee's 3rd place is significant. She beat, among others, Arley Kemmerer who owns some serious UCI points and is usually a winner at the regional C2s and just behind the big guns at the big C1s.

A lot of high profile DNSs for the Men's Elite race. No Ben Berden, no Jonathan Page, no Stephen Hyde. Group of 5 for most of the race off the front including Curtis White, Cam Dodge, Travis Livermon, Ben Frederick, Anthony Clark. Dan Chabanov was looking solid in the top 10 too, until he wasn't and he faded out of the UCI points grab.

Justine Lindine is the second really nice pro who not only talked with me a bunch, but almost immediately asked how MY race was! Gabby Durrin was the first to do this (at Nittany) to my surprise. So nice of them. They don't know me, and yet. Anyway, even if it's just that their parents raised them right with good manners, I'm rooting for them always now.

Charm City Day 2 quick report.

There was way more velcro mud/grass today. Absolutely gorgs day. Moving up and passing those around me on the climbs, which were dramatically longer and more significant to the results today. So much fun. So much better than yesterday. Baltimore is awesome.

HPCX will be the stupid ass hotness.

Oh, BrittLee finished 2nd today. SO>MUCH>YES.

eloy said:

Oh, BrittLee finished 2nd today. SO>MUCH>YES.

OH SNAAAP!

Despite the terrified look on my face and my outrigged leg, I had a great time racing this weekend. Someone on this thread asked me if this would be a good "first timers" course and now that my memory is refreshed on the particulars of the course, I can say, not only from the big show spectacle that is regional UCI racing, make Charm City a good intro to CX racing, but the course itself is pretty friendly to novice crossers. Nothing even remotely "pro only." And yet, if you watch the interviews on Dirtwire.tv, everyone will remark upon how "hard" the course was.

Listening to the announcer talk about how this course was developed with the help of Helen Wyman to resemble some classic Belgian courses, this all made sense. Yes there were a few 180s, and some off cambers, but really, the main feature of this course was, especially today, the massive watts needed to drag yourself through THICK grass and up multiple hills in painful succession. And outside of epic sand slides and insane drop offs, from my admittedly limited perspective on Euro cross racing, they always seem much more wide open and less twisty turny than NE/MidAt courses. JPow recently spoke about how he's been focusing most of his training on low cadence power stuff to better prepare himself for World Cups; as such, he's lost some of his snap.

My coach has been drilling me on both the low cadence and high cadence stuff, and good for him, because today was the kind of day where I used both. A lot. High cadence explosions out of slow corners, lower cadence dieseling on the longer straightaways and mini sand dune whoopty-dos.

Today I lined up for the 35+ with number 460, which landed me just a couple rows shy of the back. Another well-designed hole shot, and with everyone around me clipping in sans drama, we were off to the races in fine fashion. A few laps in I had moved up enough that I saw Ragot on the upside of a hill that I was currently coasting (on of the only spots to rest on this course) down. I was pretty psyched about that I must admit. He's a front row starter and while I know he tends to fade after taking the holeshot, he still is pretty much a lock for a top 20 in these races.

I didn't see him after that though; but I continued to pick my way from group to group rider to rider. (I later found out he DNFed)

With 3 laps to go, I was wishing it was one lap to go, but I kept on the gas and did my best to move up where and when I could. With one lap to go, I could feel the guy who had hunted me down and beat me on Saturday going for his patented last 1/4 lap push. "Not today," I said as I rocked the flyover that little bit extra, made sure I got to/through the sand pits first and over the horse jump barriers in front. Carved down the esses, hit the pavement first, spun it up and I was pretty confident, hit the pavement first, "win" the race. Except one Jon Dove had different ideas and he beat me by a bike toss. Ugh. Fail. Again.

Except, not really. I finished in 28th place out of 62 starters (3 DNFs). This was my best relative CX result since entering the Master's category a year or so ago. And while I've still got plenty of room for improvement, I left it all out there today.

Epiloge: After the race, the family fun continued. Peter was on his bike all day in addition to another Lil Belgian race (no exaggeration I have literally never seen anyone who embodies #Can'tStopWon'tStop more perfectly), food was eaten, Elite races were watched, dog Penny chased squirrels, rolled around in the grass. Good times.

Didn't get a chance to talk to any of the other guys after the races. Sunday folks tend to clear out of town quickly.

Would love to read other reports. Jim and I warmed up together a bit, so I know he was there. Eloy's already posted, and I saw him well up in the mix of his 45+ race in the early laps. But didn't see Dan today. And am not sure if Dale and/or Scott raced either days.

Ran back to hotel post race to pick up my wife and then came back to check results and swap t-shirt that I had purchased. Turns out it was a women's small, rather than men's smal. Men's small is actually much better.
10th in 55 plus on Sunday. Felt much better than Saturday's 12th place. Interesting lesson in perspective, how 12th can feel like a disaster. And 10th feels fine because it's more in line with where you view your own capabilities.

Gem.

Anyone else up for racing this weekend in Baltimore?

Have a car and two bed hotel room in reserve. Come join me. It'll be awesome.

Have raced there a few times, one the best courses and well organized races around. 

https://www.bikereg.com/charmcitycross

Planning on leaving early Saturday and coming back Sunday.

Let me know: 347.225.1058 eloy@groovylab.com

jim and i representing kissena. jim looked like the hotness. i finished mid pack, a few spots ahead of prediction, nothing amaze. except, if i remember correctly, i grabbed 2 bacon, 2 beers, and 1 cookie handup. so much hard stupid fun. looking forward to tomorrow.

reports aside, today, simply, i saw the best cyclocross i've seen in years. this will be the 2016 race weekend to remember.

you, reading this, i wish you were here. you would be loving it.

Also, i've taken over the MAC instagram...

Day 2 provided crazy high winds and sharp blue skies, what was wet mud Saturday got tacky fast for Sunday. So. Much. Awesome.

Jim looked amazing at his start.

For me, Sunday lacked any handups, but provided good solid long chicane/climbs. Felt good, raced well.

Probably the most fun I've had racing my bike in my life.

Laps were long, and they let us do them today -- for me: 125TSS 1.10IF -- so much fucking hard. I raced for 54 minutes, and loved the fight of each one of them.

Baltimore brought it.

Baltimore is one of the best races you'll ever do.

No longer part of the MAC series, it offers some new cool categories.

Registration is open now. Come race, you will love it.
https://www.bikereg.com/35847

I just realized that there will be a flyover in Baltimore -- it just wont be the same wood flyover from years past. Let's go race bikes!! 

just sayin'

I am really looking forward to finally racing Charm!

They are getting ready for you, Jeffrey

I really hope that is not the flyover!  Scary

But really, what is that?!

I am simultaneously stoked and scared. This is going to be awesome

I will now express regret that I am not going.

there's a small rumor that those photos are actually a joke, but really, I am pretty sure that's a flyover we'll have to deal with tomorrow. #gonnabeslow #hotness

yup, not a joke: