I'm clear to race.  Not sure how my form is, but I'll start with HPCX.  

eloy said:

My likely Cyclocross schedule for the rest of the season:

• Sun Oct 16 HPCX
• Sun Oct 23 Cooper River
• Sat Oct 29 Croton Cross 
• Sun Oct 30 Croton Cross
• Sun Nov 6 NYC Marathon spectating
• Sat Nov 12 Northampton International
• Sun Nov 13 Northampton International
• Sat Nov 19 Rainey Park World Cup
• Thu Nov 24 PPTC Turkey Trot 5-Miler (Run race) 
• Sat Nov 26 Crossburg (Tentative, might skip for rest/training)
• Sun Nov 27 Bishops Orchards (Tentative, might skip)
• Sat Dec 3 The Ice Weasels Cometh
• Sun Dec 4 The Governor's Guard Rodeo 
• Thu Dec 8 Cyclocross Nationals Championships

That's three 2 day weekends. Not including really rad which I'll miss in favor of watching friends run NYC.

Ice Weasels and Governor's are not related but about 20 miles from each other, guessing most people will race both.

Let's go race bikes!

It's a busy one!

I'm in for HPCX, Cooper River but still debating whether I'll go Beastcross or Croton (Or both?).

Can't go Really Rad but I'm hoping to go to Northampton, however there is a New Jersey serie race that weekend. I guess we are blessed to have such a good cyclocross scene nearby.

Probably can't do HPCX this year (cheering my wife on as she runs a 5K that day), but should be in for Cooper River, Croton, Rainy and a few others

Was there ever any update on Toon Aerts

Mark Taylor said:

Was there ever any update on Toon Aerts

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

have not seen or heard one

Some changes to National's schedule 
https://s3.amazonaws.com/usac-craft-uploads-production/documents/Nat-Champ-Docs/2022/2022-Cyclocross-Schedule.pdf

Masters Men champs 40 to 59 have moved to Friday.

eloy said:

Some changes to National's schedule 
https://s3.amazonaws.com/usac-craft-uploads-production/documents/Nat-Champ-Docs/2022/2022-Cyclocross-Schedule.pdf

Masters Men champs 40 to 59 have moved to Friday.

Thanks!  So glad you caught it now.

I have time to change my nutrition schedule.  

so Croton.. first race starts (8am) before the first train from NYC arrives (8:29am)? how lame is that..

OK i see for Oct 29-30 there is a train arriving at 7:35am. 'probably' doable ...

James Reeder said:

so Croton.. first race starts (8am) before the first train from NYC arrives (8:29am)? how lame is that..

OK i see for Oct 29-30 there is a train arriving at 7:35am. 'probably' doable ...

Don't worry, I can pick you up ( and some others).

Natz quick first look preview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QWQp3ZTDVA

-- sure looks different than 2017 & sand!! 

Doing my first CX race in forever at Croton. Early in/early out for the cat4 race at 8a, mostly there for pics.

I'll be in the 45+ race on Sunday. 2:40pm start.

See some of youse there.  Taking Metro-North out of Harlem.  I think I'll be on the 11:53 train, arriving at 12:36.  

Anyone racing beast cross on sunday?

Matt Budofsky said:

Anyone racing beast cross on sunday?

yes, 40+ 4/5 field

bringing them tan walls to croton tomorrow 

signed up for cat 3 9:45 am both days 

I crashed heavily after the drop during pre-ride and busted some ribs consequently at Groton. Too bad, I like the course but there was a comedy of errors on my part that got me to that point.

Thierry Bonnaire said:

I crashed heavily after the drop during pre-ride and busted some ribs consequently at Groton. Too bad, I like the course but there was a comedy of errors on my part that got me to that point.

Oy!  Terrible news.

Was it at least a dramatic fall?

Thierry - oh man, that’s awful. I hope it’s not too painful. I spectated in the morning and could see there wasn’t much room for error with that drop off

There was a wooden caisson just at the end of the drop-off that should have been cushioned and I fell right into it.

I cheered on teammates yesterday and got some photos of two races including some former teammates and other cx community friends. Here is the link to the album. 

Here are a couple of shots


Dave is happy to be racing cross for the first time in years


Remy and Jim were inseparable until Remy burped his tire


James arrived 15 minutes before his race, so his course recon occurred during his first few laps


While everyone else looked like they were suffering, Dave just kept smiling along


The views were pretty great


Eloy and Marc battled it out for the entire race

Not sure what Dave and Remy are sniffing


James giving Rob a hand. Rob is too focused for it

Had a blast racing and spectating at Croton Cross. Being completely out of practice, out of shape and running an ancient boat anchor of a bike with 7 year old clinchers (tubes are latex at least?) meant that I just needed to have a good time out there. I previewed the course both days and got in 2 good laps. 

• Saturday - cat4 race, placed DFL of racers who did not get lapped. 29th +10:06m …result!
• Ate it on the dirt down hill on lap 2. I rode it flawlessly during previews and first lap around. I must have caught a root at the top and went over the bars and hit the ground hard. Luckily I rolled and the path was soft but it took me a good while to get up and check myself. I lost 3 or 4 spots, oh well oh smell.
• I am terrible at hopping stairs and ran it over and over and over. Guess my ill advised foray into jogging this year paid off?
• Cat4 was only 35mins and I thought I wasn’t going to make it. I guess i should do more intervals. Or ride my bike more often than once a week.
• I did not stop smiling. I could not stop smiling. 
• I’m sure I annoyed the crap out of anyone riding with me those first few laps as I could not stop heckling myself and shouting out encouragement to my fellow back of the pack friends.
• Hung out with KCC crew, took pics and vid’s of Eloy and friends racing. Smelled some wild onions with Remy. The usual.
• Sunday - smaller field, 20th +6:25 and just edged out the guy who placed immediately in front of me yesterday by 1 second and ahead of 6 racers who didn’t get lapped. Results!
• Reverse course, felt faster than Saturday, but I could not ride up the back woods. More running!
• The hilly off camber chicanes were too technical for my lame self and Eloy caught me on camera falling. Fun!
• Hung with 2 other guys for a long time and just barely lost a wheel on the last lap and ended up falling for the second and last time on the last turn before the finishing straight. That’s where the guy behind me almost caught me at the line. Fun!
• Watched women’s field and men cat3 ripping it up. Super fun.

One more pic I forgot 

@Thierry Bonnaire hope you heal up quickly!

@PatrickGrehan those pictures are 🔥. Sorry to have missed croton on Saturday, everyone looked super sharp!

@Thierry Bonnaire hope you heal up quick!

My plan sunday was to race croton if i felt rested enough. hope to see Croton back next year!

In the A.M. took the extra 2 hours of sleep despite Croton #fomo then headed straight to BeastCross where I got 3rd place in the 40+ 4/5 field and successfully defended my lead in the NJ CX Cup for my division. Jim Feehan and Matt raced, too. Matt got 3rd place in the cat 5 field. Check the KCC instagram for videos of Matt's race.

Thank you for your words of encouragement Kissenistas! Right now I feel good and will heal up quickly.

Raced Beastcross yesterday. Got to the race and realized I forgot my helmet, so was immediately panicked/annoyed. James was the hero of the day and let me borrower his after his race. I had a feeling the sand would be my undoing here and went in with really low expectations. 

I had a good start and knew from HPCX last year that sand + Cat5 field was going to be a mess so I hammered away and took the lead and hit the sand first. I got through about half of it before I had to jump off and run. There was a guy on a mountain bike behind me and he came out of the sand just in front. We kept at it and had a pretty sizable gap through the first lap. Once we hit the first sand pit on lap 2 he dropped me like an anchor. I held a decent gap through the first half of the second lap and then got caught on the climb through the woods by one other cat5 and a handful of single speed and fat tire racers.

By lap 3, my hear rate had been in the red for a while, and I was hurting. I knew my lap times were much slower but I kept chugging away. Nothing really to report- I kept it tight and rode within myself. By the end of the lap I had it in my mind that we'd only be doing 4 laps, but I was wrong and we had 2 more to go. That was mentally a tough pill to swallow.

Lap 4 was the low point of the race. I was seeing crosseyed, my lungs hurt, my legs hurt and at this point started to get sloppy. There was a small single track coming into the 2nd sand pit and I had a pedal strike on a rock that was a little off to the right. Ironically that helped snap me back into it and made me focus on the course rather than my heart rate/exhaustion.

Lap 5 felt better. I realized that I was sitting in 3rd place, and had that "just 1 more lap" mentality. That first sandpit, last time I'll see you this year. The uphill section through the woods, crush it this one time and you get to shoot downhill through some gravel. The big cornering section, get out of the saddle and hammer out of each corner. The second sand pit, MORE POWER and push. Finished feeling the emptiest I've ever felt before on a bike.

This was my first ever podium and having come in with such low expectations made it feel even better!

from Croton Cross: does anyone have pics of Thierry and Thomas from day 1, and JP from day 2?