Meh...u guys are 20 years late to the table...how's bout some cross racing at the kissena velodrome...

King Kog did exactly this a few weeks ago.

Cool. How did you find out? I'd have liked to go. Did any of y'all?

Was around the NACCC messenger worlds, theres a really cool drone video of it, can't find. Not a surprise, NYC has a really cool tradition of 'bandit' cross, 2013-14 did a whole series out of Cunningham, 2016 was a race at kissena

before the fence went up it was an awesome course....3/4 around the drome...off the lip into the woods...ran up a staircase in the park...singletrack...re enter the park near the back side and do it a few more times...

was a big weekend for cyclocross... masters worlds, 3 UCI races in the US, westwood..., superprestige, mol, etc.. etc...

most importantly: single speed worlds in portland.

to which Sven Nys showed up.

I'm gonna type that again, Sven Nys showed up to #sscxwcxpdx









Adam Craig won (on a giant with flat bars) -- famously, of course, the prize for the win is a tattoo, so who knows what deal might have been made








Cyclocross is everything you want cycling to be.

twoyacks said:

before the fence went up it was an awesome course....3/4 around the drome...off the lip into the woods...ran up a staircase in the park...singletrack...re enter the park near the back side and do it a few more times...

If it's the staircase up the park on the west side of the lake leading up to the orchard, back during the crazy 1995 blizzard when it was completely entombed in snow my friends and I went "sledding" down it and onto the frozen lake (which I don't think is possible any more after the 2003 renovation).  

/coolstorybro

Why was Sven Nys at singlespeed CX worlds?

http://www.velonews.com/2016/12/news/sven-nys-singlespeed-cx-worlds_425835



cyclocross is everything you want cycling to be.

That's pretty cool.

twoyacks said:

before the fence went up it was an awesome course....3/4 around the drome...off the lip into the woods...ran up a staircase in the park...singletrack...re enter the park near the back side and do it a few more times...

There were 'cross races at the Velodrome as far back as at least the 1980's.  I did a few in the 90's and Kissena helped promote a few in the early 2000's.

Most were variations of what Yack did.

Anyone going to Sunken Meadow Sunday?

I plan to, @mugwump. 

General cyclocross question: When to upgrade from Cat 5 to Cat 4? There aren't the same obvious advantages to upgrading as there are in road racing: safer racing isn't an issue, and the fact that most CX races combine categories 4 and 5 means you're still racing against a field of basically the same overall quality. 

MaxThorn said:

General cyclocross question: When to upgrade from Cat 5 to Cat 4? There aren't the same obvious advantages to upgrading as there are in road racing: safer racing isn't an issue, and the fact that most CX races combine categories 4 and 5 means you're still racing against a field of basically the same overall quality. 

It's largely meaningless, as the fields are almost always run together. USAC says it's mandatory after 10 starts.

#ymmv

http://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=2627

Huh. Yeah, whaddayaknow, it's mandatory after "experience in 10 races." I assumed it was like road racing, where the upgrade rule--"Finish 10 mass start races"--implies that you may upgrade, but you don't have to. 

Guess I should contact NYSBRA. 

MaxThorn said:

Huh. Yeah, whaddayaknow, it's mandatory after "experience in 10 races." I assumed it was like road racing, where the upgrade rule--"Finish 10 mass start races"--implies that you may upgrade, but you don't have to. 

Guess I should contact NYSBRA. 

You can do it straight from the USAC website.

https://cyclingtips.com/2016/12/marianne-vos-to-return-to-cyclocross-this-month/

VERY EXITING

Soltice CX Report

Zip car fail second weekend in a row, battery dead after Max and I load up car. Zip help arrives at 8:40am; 2 hours after we report it. Max had long gone home, as his race was at 9am. I wont make Masters at 11am, but decide to try the 3/4 at 1:30pm. They'll confirm Monday, but seems like zip will refund me. Seriously sucks for Max. I was looking fwd to seeing him kick ass.

• Eventually make it there
• Great course, kinda flat, in a sorta farm
• ground holds moisture like crazy
• mud is not deep, but fun slippery and basically everywhere, specially every single corner
• super cool vibe, hangs with Andrew Bernstein, Gabe Lloyd, Chabanov, Kacey Manderfield. there is a sweet community around Allentown/Philly. Great food trucks. Everything a good local race should be
• hangs include discussions on using my chevron tubulars vs mud clinchers
• consensus is tubulars
• will run 19 & 22psi -- hotness!
• staged day of registration last
• pass some at the start
• try to stay clean thru the many muddy turns, which is key, many will crash, I manage to ride clean
• looking for places to pedal, don't find many
• picking lines thru the mud create a speed/effort limit
  
• but the spots we can rip, are seriously slippery hit that rut braap
• fun: always racing a group or someone
• there are two sets of barriers and one set of stairs 
• one of the set of barriers is low and in a straight away, daring us to bunny hop
• so I go for it, and bunny hop them every lap
• that is something I thought I would never report or type: I bunny hopped barriers cleanly every lap!
• (cleanly and slooow)
• sidenote: last weekend I rode the log. this is kinda new for me, and completely related to riding trails at Cunningham. Come join me.
• cx battles make cool new friends
• Honest: great race, good times. 

Later grabbed an amazing truck flatbread and took a photo or two. Dan would go on to win the elite men race. LVG won the elite women.

Someday I'll hop the barriers...
#dreams

(Photo by Harry B.)

First ever podium in a bike race. See that guy in second place? We’d been battling since lap one for fourth and fifth place, and lucked into the podium after two guys ahead of us had mechanicals. Just before we learned our good fortune, with the better part of two laps to go, I had said to him: “Let’s catch them. We’ll have to take risks, but no stupid mistakes.” Then I felt my front wheel dive, and realized the course tape had yanked my handlebars. Doh! Eventually I closed the gap. My average heart rate in this 35-minute race was a few beats above LTHR. I stayed right on his wheel.

Last lap, only two chances left to make a move. I took the first one, a sharp left like a backwards check mark, very pleased to have steered my bike in just the way I wanted, and needed, to do. I heard Harry and Patrick absolutely lose their shit. (Thanks for the encouragement, guys.) Then I lead us over a bumpy drag before the right turn onto the gravel finishing straight. I took the outside line, he went inside—and suddenly I’m looking at his rear wheel. I tried to overtake him but fell short by (I think) less than a bike length.

It’s fitting that I finished on the podium at Long Island Cyclocross at Sunken Meadow. Last year’s edition, held the Saturday after Thanksgiving, was my first ever bicycle race. I’d been convinced to show up and register on site by some local Lycra-hounds I’d met the day before on an NYC Velo shop cyclocross ride up the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail to Hastings-on-Hudson. I was riding the same Surly Cross Check I race now, only then it was rigged up for long-distance touring. I’d taken the racks and fenders off but hadn’t changed much else. I finished 25th of 37. I was happy. My only goal was not to finish DFL.

Not long afterwards I joined a club, this one, and committed myself to the delayed and delicious gratification that is road racing. I was satisfactorily exhausted from the season, and I ended up putting off racing ‘cross until Gloucester, mid-October. Who knows—my return may had lasted even longer if I hadn’t pre-reg’d back in August. Nine races and lots of fun later I came back to Sunken Meadow on Sunday a newly-minted Cat 4 ‘cross racer hunting for a podium. I had one of the most fun races of my season and left with a suspiciously tidy little story to tell about it. 

M12dec2016
MaxT, BravO! &a well deserved place on podium @LI Sunken Meadow CX in a tough battle (cat4/5) on a equal technical&power course with more elevation  and climbing than anyOne cared for at a seaSide course; we could see the drama playout across the sloped 1.75mi zigZagged yellow tapped course through the leafless deciduous trees: Max dig deep, Max
pedal harder, Max go go GO! &he did... it was a beautiful bell lap pass having closed a 7sec gap! ...the finish was w/in a wheel width as Max was closing on his prey 6more meters &nextStepUP! enJOY...
-harryB;-) 

Bravo Max!

Anybody racing in Connecticut this weekend? Last races of the season (that aren't Nationals).

I will be spending the weekend at my Aunt's in CT and planning to race Elm City CX.

Forecast is for some snow Saturday and rain Sunday, so depending on how bad it gets, I might change plans --

I am not staying with Eloy's aunt, but I too am making a last minute decision about Elm City depending on conditions. Mud could be fun, but non-stop cold rain may lead me to stay home. 

Quick plan update: Skipping my aunt's as they are expecting quite a bit of snow tomorrow.

Still tentative to race Elm on Sunday, depending on weather. If I do, will leave from Brooklyn.

So far it looks rainy wet/muddy, but in the 40~50s. Which could be manageable, and probably the only way to get some high intensity on a wet December Sunday.

Have a zip in reserve, and could take one. Who knows, Maybe a teammate is motivation enough.

Elm City Cross

Amazing: Takes simply one text during the snow storm Saturday to convince both Patrick and Max to come race Sunday.

• Max will sign up 3/4
• Patrick and I Masters 40+
• It, um, snowed a lot more in CT than it did in NYC
• Also, super foggy forever
• Patrick points out: "well, at least is not raining"
• Snowy wet mud absolutely everywhere on course
• Snow, mud, and trees make everything single track, really hard to pass
• Extreme but super fun conditions
• temp in the 40s but here wet = cold, and we are gonna get wet
• Patrick drives better than me, he's gone after a quick while, I'll see him again at the finish
• like everyone else, I'll go down a few times, notables are a hay bale, a tree shoulder tackle, and Sean Runete's back after he biffed a corner in front of me
• for me, once conditions pass a certain threshold, I struggle to put it all together. Hindsight gives me some ideas on how to fix that, glad I came out -- when else would we ever ride tracks like these?
• otherwise, it is was stupid ass awesome fun!

Post race, Max, Emma his girlfriend, and I would eat the best eggs and pancakes in the world, at a New Haven deli.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiOgF0AzN4A

Thanks for driving @eloy. Y'all, Elm City CX was as fun--and not nearly as cold--as it looks in the photos and video above. A great race to end my first cyclocross season.

As a day-of registrant, I started in the back of the field of twenty Cat 3/4 racers. About midway through the race I was as far up as tenth place, I think, before the mud started getting to me. I went back and forth with a collegiate cyclist from New Hampshire. On the last lap, after closing the gap of a few bike lengths with some aggressive riding on the singletrack (you can see the section I'm talking about beginning at around 6:00 in the video), my wheels went out from under me on a slippery turn before crossing the pavement (6:38). I dropped my chain and lost two spots. I rode in alone to 14th place. 

Patrick and Eloy looked to be having lots of fun in their masters' race. Glad to see you two out there this weekend, as always. Thanks for your advice and support in cyclocross this year.  

MaxThorn said:

It’s fitting that I finished on the podium at Long Island Cyclocross at Sunken Meadow. Last year’s edition, held the Saturday after Thanksgiving, was my first ever bicycle race. I’d been convinced to show up and register on site by some local Lycra-hounds I’d met the day before on an NYC Velo shop cyclocross ride up the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail to Hastings-on-Hudson. I was riding the same Surly Cross Check I race now, only then it was rigged up for long-distance touring. I’d taken the racks and fenders off but hadn’t changed much else. I finished 25th of 37. I was happy. My only goal was not to finish DFL.

Yeah man, Patrick, Phil and I met you that day, you were all Brooklyn beard'd, and the next day you joined us on a meet Kissena ride (if my memory serves me right ...)

Great work man and great progress!!