Jules said:

https://www.velonews.com/2018/09/news/with-cross-contract-annulled-wout-van-aert-free-to-join-worldtour_478987

GCN:

A Road Cyclist's Introduction To 'Cross | Emma Does Cyclo-Cross Ep. 1

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

AnthonyOtt said:

Looks like a strong crew leaving from Brooklyn for Cooper river on Sunday.  Any room for one more?  I can ride down  from uws in the morning to meet up in Brooklyn.  Unfortunately, I can only race at 2:30 or 3:30.  Please let me know if we can make something work!

• Don't call it a comeback
• Jim Feehan and Barry Jones lined up. Default goals.
• My small injury made me loose a brutal amount of fitness
• It is noticeable at the start, I am sharp and clip in right away, but still loose places before the holeshot
• No worries, keep pedaling
• Eventually able to catch and pass Jim and Barry
• Make a silly mistake in the more technicallish north section, find myself off the bike running up a corner on lap 1, omg! all these peeps are gonna pass me, luckily, no one does
• End up with a group of 6ish or so, mostly on my wheel for a good chunk of the race
  
• Jim is looking like the firah, and giving us hell, making it clear he can drop us anytime
• It eventually explodes inside 2 to go when Jim attacks
• He and another dude will get a few seconds
• No one else gets around me
• Surprisingly, find myself gaining time on the steps and corner barriers (by running them INSIDE, shorter line bro, duh) 
• Finished 21st. Better than predicted, but wonder if knowing I was close to top 20 would have pushed me harder, except I don't think I had any harder to give
• Later, we grabbed great food truck foods, discuss Bertucco's new bike, and wondered who won worlds
  

Race Report - Uncle Sam Cyclocross GP in Troy, NY

This weekend I got to race Prospect Park twice. How is this possible you may ask? Well, after I napped the sting of Saturdays Fall Classic off I hopped in the car with my steel-framed Surly cross-check, picked up a 10-piece Popeyes chicken tender box (+ mashed potatoes) along the way, and headed upstate to North-South lake state campground. I had already booked the site for the weekend and couldn’t help but incorporate cycling after a last minute change in plans for the weekend.

But before I get into my first Cyclocross experience, here is a photo of the beautiful upstate NY roadside scenery just North of Saugerties.

So after spending the night in a tent, I packed up camp (in total darkness) and headed an hour further North toward Albany for Uncle Sam Cyclocross GP! I arrived in the other Prospect Park (the one in Troy, NY) with enough time to ride the course for a bit before the start.

It was a damp, mildly-humid morning after some showers. There were a few patches of mud, but my tire choice (my only CX tires) seemed appropriate for the mostly wet, grassy course. We lined up approx. 20 strong and after the two min warning (and a strategic swig and toss of my water bottle) my first Cyclocross race had begun!

After sprinting my way up to the front I made it through some of the days obstacles and hung onto the main group for about half of the race. After losing some time on some of the more challenging obstacles, I found myself somewhere between the main group and the stragglers for much of the race. My road fitness is the only thing that kept me from falling further behind, as I need a lot of practice on the obstacles. The course was marked well and there was a collection of every type of obstacle that I am aware of. Eloy posted a link to some really great drone footage of the course above. The winner ended up with a average speed 1mph faster than me (in a 6 mile race).

There was this one section of the course in which one would go through a steep uphill  90 degree turn (off camber) to a very steep and sudden downhill, to an immediate 180 degree turn at the bottom and back up. On the last lap I went full-send on the downhill and began braking too early, resulting in me sliding down the second half of the descent on the side of my face and shoulder. My skinsuit has the grass stains to prove it, which appear to have bonded to my kit on a molecular level.

Everything people told me about Cyclocross was confirmed in this race. To summarize in no partciular order…I got dirty (check), my avg heart rate looked like I had flatlined (check), and I had the most fun I’ve had on a bike since I first started racing road (check). Looking forward to my next race!

Van Aert's gets his first win !

"I don't think Mathieu not being here took anything away from the win," Van Aert told Het Nieuwsblad, 

Can't say i agree with him

Phil Maronilla said:

So this was HippoCross