Awesome guys... congrats on the podi spot Jim!

I took 8th both days. Todd snagged 10th Sunday. Me, Todd, Nathaniel, Myles and Josh stayed til 8:30 cleaning up.

I will post a full report later, but I am battered and bruised from my shoulders to my toes. It was a rough weekend. Was as high as 4th or 5th both days at points in the race. So a little bittersweet, but happy to be in the top 10 consistently.

Thanks all!

Turns out it's a somewhat complicated and time consuming project to produce a cheering section to yell "Go Daddy!". But apparently it works.

@ Jim and Patrick

I have some nice podium shots. I will post this evening and give you guys the files if you want them. Great racing on a tough tricky course.

Also,

If anyone has feedback on ideas for improving the race and improving the overall experience, please post here. I'm going to compile ideas and suggestions and see what we can do to make things run more smoothly next year.

General feedback was that folks dug the courses...

Mike

Congrats to Jim on po-di-um! Well deserved results from a consistent season. And nice one to Mr. Grehan taking 4th. Sounds like we had some nice rides all around. Sorry to hear about Perlberg & Ragot's misfortunes but you guys will get there... and you came away w/ good results nonetheless.

I think the racing itself was great, and I'm still kind of in awe at how Myles can design a challenging, but not ridiculous course out of nothing. My main suggestions focus on "back stage" kinds of things.

Friday Set-Up Stuff

1. Get started earlier...this was partly my fault as I held up Todd and WDC coming out of Manhattan by about 40 minutes, but getting out there and getting started at the course by even 9am would have been good.

2. Two more guys...we basically had about 4 guys working at any one time on Friday and by the end of the night, it was just 3. With a solid 6 guys throughout the day, we could have been done hours earlier and everyone would have been able to get in some nice pre-race riding.

Saturday Course Design Stuff

1. One or two more, straightaways. This year there were a few more twist and turns on the flats (notably coming out of the amphitheater sweeping rise just past the fence opening before the "forest") and so it felt like there weren't enough straight, power stretches. One or two less "left-right-left" jogs on the chainlink fence section leading into the boathouse rollers would have done the trick I think.

Persnickety Stuff

1. Porta-Johns. We need them. Not sure what happened there.

2. Prizes. We need them. For ALL categories. There are MAC series rules about this. I never saw a sadder more surprised face than the Master's 55+ guy as he walked away from registration after being told there was no prize for him. There was ridiculously good money for the Elite men and women fields. If we can rustle up KOM muffin prizes for weekend group rides, we should be able to get something together for everyone on race day?

3. Kissena club rider/volunteer registration instructions. Let's try to make this part of it clearer next year.

4. Food vendors. I know there's some kind of Long Island/Nassau county rules about exclusive rights to work the park, but maybe there's some kind of work-around so we can get the waffle guys there.

Bigger than just our race Stuff

1. Rider turn-out. I thought, this year, not being the last race of the MAC series, we'd see a jump in the registration numbers. And maybe there was, but given the quality of the race itself, I'm still bummed/surprised more racers don't come out to play. Meanwhile on Staten Island, the cat 4 field was maxed out with a lot of "not-regulars" on the cross circuit. Why? Did that many people really take the Ferry? Staten Island may seem closer, and easier to get to, but not from my perspective...they were about equal in terms of effort/time to get to the race venue. Reading the MAC series guidelines, there are all kinds of "you must" do this and that in terms of race advertising--and also what the series is supposed to do for the promoter. I don't know if all of that was done, but if it was, then we have to try and do more.

Stuff that's going to sound a little obnoxious and self serving, but I can't help myself:

1. Rider call-ups. Not a fan of calling riders up by order of registration only. I mean at a really small race like the Westwood Velo Hariman races, or if you have Al Borough freak strength, it doesn't matter that much, but for the rest of us.

2. Related, I don't understand why Cat 4s don't include call-ups first by series standing like EVERY OTHER category too. It's not like MAC folks aren't keeping track. There are points on a PDF file with our names behind them. I think the Verge Series does this the right way. UCI points, series standings (although they too mysteriously don't count the cat 4s as an official series), crossresults.com rankings, and finally, if your name doesn't show up anywhere else, then order of registration.

Stuff that's pretty much going guaranteed to get me volunteered to organize it next year:

1. Kids races.

That's it...my computer is dying. And I have to go train or gorge on leftover trick or treat sized Swedish Fish candies for breakfast...not sure which yet.

I'll put up my feedback list later but...

@Marc "2. Related, I don't understand why Cat 4s don't include call-ups first by series standing like EVERY OTHER category too. It's not like MAC folks aren't keeping track. There are points on a PDF file with our names behind them. I think the Verge Series does this the right way. UCI points, series standings (although they too mysteriously don't count the cat 4s as an official series), crossresults.com rankings, and finally, if your name doesn't show up anywhere else, then order of registration."

Marc - I think cat 4 order of reg line up is to give the little guys a chance. Same reason Cat 5 in road (and 4 in cross) don't get cash prizes. If you want big boy callups, get good and ride in the big boy category.
I like the order of reg line up for the 4s.

(please note, I say this in FULL support of your self imposed downgrade. I agree with the various reasons you have listed for doing it).

-Joshua

Posted By: JoshuaCIf you want big boy callups, get good and ride in the big boy category.

But getting good is hard. Sigh.

It was a very fun weekend of racing for me. Thanks to Myles and everyone else who helped make it happen.

I raced the B's both days and was 12th on Saturday and 10th on Sunday. I had a reasonably good start on Saturday, top 10 going into the first turns. After 2 or 3 laps I was in a nice group with Mike, Al B. and two others. Then I crashed, and, soon after, I had to stop to close an open skewer. In the meantime Mike's group and a few others rode away. I pulled back a few spots, but didn't make any progress on Mike's group. I got passed by 11th on the last half lap. I was happy with 12th, but felt I could have done better.

Unlike Saturday, I did not get a very good start on Sunday. I tapped my brakes once on the first grass section and dropped like a stone through the top 10-15. After that I suffered all usual first lap mishaps. I recovered pretty well on the 2nd and 3rd laps and, similar to Saturday, latched on to the back of a group with Mike, an Adler rider and a few others. Over the next few laps the Adler rider and I lost contact with Mike's group. But I was seeing double at that time, so I was happy to sit. I passed the Adler rider the last time up the stairs and rode as hard as I could to the finish. I caught, but didn't pass, one guy who was dropped from Mike's group. At the finish I was really tired, but also really happy. 10th is my best MAC finish, and it felt pretty cool to be racing with some of the big-er guns on the local racing scene.

Todd

I have a coworker who raced yesterday. I asked him what he thought, what he'd do to improve the course. This is what he said:
"A lot of courses are too heavily weighted to slowing you down, so that's why I could do without some of the turns. It's often so hard to chase guys down after starts because of that. I'd also like to see more leg-breaking climbs on courses--just short, steep, "do I run, do I ride" climbs, these are almost non-existent at CX races around here. Most of the challenges are gimmicky--"spirals of death", too many barriers, too many turns. A balanced course needs sections where you can open up for 100 or 200 meters here and there. Most races you get about 50 meters if you're lucky. Yesterday's course had some great off-camber stuff, though. Loved that. And it is one of the better courses for going fast in places, just would prefer to sustain it a bit more--one less section of turns."

I also received mostly praise from the athletes. A few guys went out of their way to tell me how much they enjoyed racing there. So, what can we do to get more athletes and spectators out there? Maybe we can look to some of what the Staten gang has done. The prizes they give. The way they market their race and build enthusiasm, and create a fun environment to hang out in. I think the beer&donut garden is a step in the right direction. Something to help people stick around and cheer. And maybe we can convince the official food vendor to sell stuff that the cross crowd will enjoy, like good beers. A local craft brewer like Brooklyn Brewery. The other area races going on that weekend also thinned the crowd.

Quick post race survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/B3V59WN

Gotta find a way to get waffles in there.
More Waffles = More Awesomesauce

I really enjoyed the course - agree I'd have preferred a steeper bit of climbing here & there, but overall a really well designed course (says me with all of five CX races under my belt)

Thanks again Myles!

J

I almost pulled off a beer deal with brooklyn brewery last minute. they were ready to sell us beer at cost but I couldn't make it over there before closing. bummer.

maybe next year we get http://www.doughnutplant.com/ and brooklyn brewery to co-sponser the beer and doughnut garden!

Several racers having completed their races on Sunday mentioned they preferred the Sunday course and these and others said also that they had had a good time (saying that spontaneously).

More than a couple nervous racers asked us at the registration table at what time their race was starting, when Mike was not there we had no clue. More useful info (like where the bathrooms are located, how deep the prizes are, etc.) readily available would be better.

We did have a printed list floating around the desk...but yeah, a big sign (we had all that wall space!) that said "INFO" with times, bathrooms, rules (no bikes near the lake), etc would be a good idea.

JIM!!! FUCK YEAH!

Good job y'all. Enjoying the pics.

we got some Kissenas on the front page of velonews

i think it's Myles, mid-tumble

lol!

JP is super excited when he races Super Cross..how about you ? 

Feel free to merge this with another thread, oh wizards of forum wizardry, but the previous thread was sooooo 2011.

There's already been some behind the scenes discussions on call-up procedures, but what I'm most concerned with here is publicity. Namely, I don't even know when the race is! Yikes.

I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one who uses bikereg for a CALENDAR as well as a registration page, so I was thinking, even if we aren't ready for registrations to start rolling in, we should get a listing up there with the dates and other info that is set in stone, and keep it "registration is not open yet," so that folks can place it on their calendar.

Also, I would like an easier/clearer way for team members to register for the race. The last couple of years despite volunteering setting up/tearing down the courses, I've paid full price, which I don't terribly mind, seeing as how I have a job, sending cash-money the club's and Myles way to support a good cause, but that was also in part, if I'm totally honest, motivated by that, "well, if I don't register now, online I'm going to be a back-row starter." Also, hearing other team members got to race for a discount or free or whatever kind of is not all that awesome. Maybe we can have a double secret code to type into the bikereg registration page? (No telling your best friends on Mengoni and WS United okay?)

On the other hand...we REALLY need to get the word out about this awesome weekend of racing. I'm going to go all mid 1980s on y'all youngins right now and suggest some of you designer types make up some flyers. That's right beeyotches. FLYERS! Print on colored paper, bring to your big races, stick on cars in the parking lot. Myles traditionally has a mega-payout for women's fields. If I was handsome like some of you, I would go around to the women of cross at your next races and work your lame good-looking dude magic.

not finalized:  https://www.bikereg.com/Net/17443

setting up the course last year was mucho fun

cross posting:

who would be interested in racing the KCCCC (Kissena Cycling Club Cyclocross Championships)

It would be the first race Sunday morning of Super Cross (November 18th), probably an 8AM start.

We would need at least 20 racers to make it worthwhile.

I will help do registration one day... I am also working on local shops for neutral support. Will help set up Friday after school...My garage for the stuff after staten cx....KCCC race sounds like fun..Whatever else I can do, just let me know...my proximity to the park makes it a natural.

Kccc I'm in

eragot said:

Kccc I'm in

you missed a c.