Also, Harry, you could ask some guys who have done both categories. It's not always about the lap times. Sometimes, especially in cross, you will benefit more if you are elbow to elbow, nose to ass for 35 minutes with more guys than riding solo-ish OTB for 40 minutes. Because so much of cross is about how you handle your business in traffic...

Harry, another thought. On some race weekends, I've chosen to race the longer master's race one day and my ability category level on the other. This way, I sort of get the best of both worlds. An opportunity to race longer, AND an opportunity to compete, race at the front. But, I will say, I won't sign up for a race if I'm just going to be puttering by myself at the back. Last year I thought I might be able to compete in the 35+ at HPCX, for example, and I was very wrong.


Gwynna...this is perhaps a topic for another thread, but there's not really any such thing as "long intensity." Yes, a race is "intense" for 30-45 minutes "long," but if you were to look at a power file of a typical crosser you would see a dizzying amount of power spikes. When you are developing your training plan, any singular effort of 30-45 minutes long is going to be done at threshold or below. By increasing your threshold, you are effectively reducing the amount of time you are spending the race above threshold, or "in the red." And that's a good thing. But for success in cross, where the aforementioned power spikes are very real, it's important to incorporate intervals that mimic the demands of racing.

Think about any CX race you've done...think about drilling it maximum wattage up that short ride-up for about 10-20 seconds, followed by steady hard riding on the flats for 30 seconds, woa, here comes some twisty bits, 10 seconds of recovery, flat power stretch again, hit the gas...repeat, over and over again. "Long intensity" ain't going to help you here. You need punch, power and recovery. That's where interval training does it's job.

Bump.

Quick report from day one. Patrick Grehan and I were the lone Kissena representatives at Northampton, the country's longest running UCI race.

Patrick raced the 4/5s, another huge field and came 18/137 finishers.

I lined up near the back of the combined Master's 35+/Elite Juniors field 61 riders strong and had issues. Frustrating day for me. At one point I was literally the last rider on the course. I fought back as well as I could and finished in 50th place. Not happy with that. But there's always tomorrow.

Of course the rain came and drenched the later afternoon races. Pro women getting the worst of it I think. Canadian Mike had an uncharacteristically un-hole-shot-ey start on a pro-only loop and never was firing on all cylinders. A handful of laps in, and he clearly pulled the plug. Still he was the quickest of anyone around a particularly tricky muddy single track up and down and around. Race was won by Stephen Hyde, by like 40 seconds over pro mtb stud and professional odd-ball, Adam Craig (Giant).

PS Sarah, Peter and I participated in a Halloween parade last night in a neighboring town. Fun Family times! Put this race on your calendar family men and women!

Love feed... Twitter updates today?

Day 2 was lonely for KCC. Just me battling it out at the back of the 35+ Masters/Juniors field. Different course with some crazy hole-shot stuff. Didn't come to a complete standstill like I did on day 1, but there was a huge slow-down that guaranteed I was going to be back of the pack.

Still fought hard, was catching and passing assorted old and young fast dudes. Dry day today but EXTREMELY windy. At one point, I came up to and passed and junior, and hollered for him to sit on my wheel and I dragged him through some fierce wind stuff. Eventually though, he couldn't hold my wheel and I was still charging ahead.

Got into a verbal altercation with some grumpy master who couldn't get around me in the technical bits and was all pissed off that I took a steep drop/off descent "too slow." I gave him an earful. This course has it's share of technical, but PLENTY of wide open fields of green for passing. Jerk. Ironically, he couldn't pass me on the flats either, and I dropped him and a gang of 4 or so riders heading into the last lap, but they charged back on the last time up into the technical upper deck root/rocky section, and I just couldn't get back in time to spank them in the sprint. Which I definitely would have done....groan... :-)

In the end, I somewhat bizarrely somehow did "worse?" than yesterday. 53rd? I don't know, the race felt much better, I was battling, chasing groups down, etc. Who knows...New England Elite Master racing is still a mystery to me. Gotta spend some time with the results and ponder the numbers some.

In the Pro Women's race, BrittLee finished a strong 6th.

In the Pro Men's race, Garrigan back on all cylinders was 3rd wheel for the first lap or so. Was riding the crazy pro only sections like a boss. Faded somewhat but still hung on for a strong 7th.

Here's what you missed:

http://dirtwire.tv/2014/11/cycle-smart-international-day-1-elite-mens-highlights/

Wondering who else is considering this race.

Not only is it the 25th anniversary, but first time it doesn't coincide with the NYC Marathon.

Thinking on doing the Cat 3 race on Saturday and 45+ on Sunday.

Jessica will be out of town, so whether I go or not, will partly be determined by who else might be there.

http://www.nohocx.com/registration/

I'm considering. Waiting to hear back from my friends who I usually stay with. Unfortunately their 45+ race is 1-3 so I'd have to race the 8:00 am race. 

I am but I suspect I'll be traveling.

Considering how much this course hates me...I shouldn't go, but I will because I do. Also good friends in the neighborhood makes it a fun weekend regardless. I'll race the Master's 35+.

Marc Bertucco said:

Considering how much this course hates me...I shouldn't go, but I will because I do. Also good friends in the neighborhood makes it a fun weekend regardless. I'll race the Master's 35+.

I've been going back and forth on this one a lot. Emotionally I want to be there, but for a lot of really practical reasons, this will be the first time in 5 years I've missed Cycle-Smart.

I'll race Fair Hill on the 7th instead.

You have chosen wisely, Grasshopper!
MAC points trump all other considerations.

I will be there. Category 3 on Saturday. Masters 45+ on Sunday.

Northampton here we come. Will be awesome.

Pro tips on CSI:

http://dirtwire.tv/2015/11/5538/

Noho CX day 1 report.

Awesome level hotness course. Mega almost back rows of biggest cat 3 field ever in the world 

Crappy first lap, first run up scrum scram has me come out basic kinda last-ish.

Just keep riding and passing and passing,

Big field means you are racing someone, usually a group, the whole time. Fun!

Last two laps with a crew of about 5 or 6 to the line, including my friend David Parrilo, who wins that sprint. but I get everyone else. Ton o high fives ensued. Was stupid ass awesome.

photo by Jess 

You were racing with Parrillo? That guy is not too shabby. Hup-hup, kill it tomorrow. Day 2's course traditionally has less of a crappy first lap traffic jam at a run-up.

NoHo CX Day 2 Masters Report

-- later, we ate pancakes and took a couple of photos of the elite women

Registration is open.
http://www.nohocx.com/registration/

This race is amaze. Be there.

day 1 2016.

this race is amazing.

line up a million rows mid largest cat 3 field ever in the world. go go go, crash on the technocalish section, who cares go go go.

Honestly, wish you were here. 

super needed great break from last week's horrors.

Also this place is gorgs. Jess and i stayed a little while, ate tacos, and took some photos.

Damn it Eloy, you're making me double regret missing my CX season. Great shots. Northampton is always special.

I second Jim's post. Great photos Eloy. This is always one of my favorite venues and town(s) to visit. I regret having to miss it. Would love to hear your race report (even from 150 racers back!)

day 2 2016

TLDR: Masters were not the better level headed field Sunday, with a couple of idiots creating stupid crazy start/lap 1 scrum crashes, which I survived fine but destroyed my race.

---

Crash 1 at the start, we did not even reach the first corner. Some dude takes out half the field, I end riding over his back, my bike on top of a bike, on top of another, with another on top of mine, atop another..., for a moment thought my race was over. Jump back, realize I am still mid pack. Keep pedaling, pass here and there, with a few others than like me can move faster. Legs actually feeling kinda ok.

Crash 2 is still in lap one, after the only run up, the remount is super loose and fairly technical rocky/rooty left turn, basically there's one line. Some other idiot, desperate to pass after crash 1, decides to create his own super wide remount line, as he comes back into the original one line, runs out of room, hits a three, crashes and takes a few of us down. Ugh. Worse, bikes in the ground, he steps on my wheel. I come out with my bars completely sideways, loose a ton of time doing my best to fix it, not able to get them back 100%, still right now the bars are turned slightly right.

What you gonna do, jump back, pedal, pedal, enjoy the truly awesome fast hard windy course, go as hard as I can, stay on the lead lap, and ride out the frustrations.

This course has the widest track ever, peeps, just get thru the technical sections, and pass on the other 80%, but c'mon now. Honest, a few old fools take this too seriously and fuck it up for everyone. Saturday's younger cat 3 field was so much more mellow and smart.

Keep this stuff in perspective. 

CX hangover is real today. Specially on my left side.


photos by Jess.

Sounds like a tough day at the office, Eloy!
Ever hear the expression, "There's no fool like an old fool..."

Registration is open. You want to race here.
http://www.nohocx.com/registration

Patrick and I headed to beautiful Northampton.

NoHo Day 1 Report, super cold, but beautiful blue skies, in gorgs Look Memorial Park. Biggest Cat 3 race 

• Crashed honestly hard about 20 minutes in. Hit my head, neck, shoulder, right side. That's that. Complete and total DNF. 
  

NoHo Day 2 Report. Also gorgs day, feels even colder. Master 40+ w/ Al Donahue, national champ Matt Timmerman, etcs.

• Crashed super hard yesterday, so you know...
• Still super fun course.
• Finished on the lead lap with those badasses.

Whatever back pain I had from Saturday is now 20 fold. Ugh. Ice and Advil forever. Not sure when I'll race again, but likely to skip Supercross.

Somehow, still, good times.

Amaze photos Eloy. Super sorry about the smash/crash. Hopefully feeling better before SuperCX. Also - lead lap? Damn.

Nice shots, Eloy, and thanks for the report. Heal up soon. 

Can we talk about Hyde's kit for a minute? His jersey, with those goofy stripes swerving like a barber's pole, was already the worst of the bunch. Now I see that the gloves, unfortunately, very much suggest the Confederate Battle Flag. Terrible choice. Isn't he originally from Pensecola? That part of Florida is definitely "the South." He should know better. I'm surprised he or someone around him didn't change the design. (I'm presuming he's not sympathetic to the group of degenerate aristocrats who started a war so that they could continue to live off the labor of enslaved human beings they believed to be racially inferior.)

And the winter version has too much navy. Just wear black shorts and tights. Ellen Noble shows how it's done:

As Eloy said, NoHo was a lot of fun. Would have loved to see more Kissena peeps there. 

Good food, great vibe, and a challenging course got combined with some surprising effects of the cold weather. It was around 25 degrees both days. What was weird was that the top layer of dirt would thaw when fields raced over them and you’d end up with sections that had a layer of mud on top of frozen ground. At points I saw it refreeze and take some fields unawares. For example I saw four elite women slide out on an an otherwise unassuming flattened grass turn - one of them who needed medical attention. 

The organizers added some sharp turns over what were usually baseball diamonds that got slick. Because there is an upper level, there were two run ups and two fast descents each lap. The descents were appropriately dramatic. Below I post some shots of a dude in the elite men who hit a fence hard on the pro-line. He was down on the ground for nearly a minute but got up and finished his race somewhere in the top 20. 

Also Joe Dombrowski from cannondale-drapac  was there. Looked strong but was nowhere as skilled as the top guys. Not surprising that a worldtour rider would be solid, but I thought he’d be crushing it (even in his off season). 

My race Saturday felt awful. I started around 4th or 5th row back in a strong 50+ field. I was okay technically, but you know how usually you battle with a couple of people around you for the majority of the race? Didn’t happen. Guys would pass me, I’d struggle to keep their wheel and repeated this for the whole race. Weird. Sunday felt much more normal. After the first lap sorted itself out I battled with a small group throughout the rest of the race. I ended up on the back end of the group at the finish but I can partially blame that on riding chicanes whose filetreads were not a good choice for the large mud puddles that surprisingly developed in the sub freezing weather between the pre-ride and my race. 

Oh, one last thing. I picked up sponsor branded course tape for Supercross. Five boxes of course tape equals 9000 feet of tape. Wow