I am 100% I'll be at Croton both days.

Still considering which fields, typically I've done the Cat 3 race both days, but might do Masters Saturday, as it is the NY State Champs, and sounds like some of you will be there too!

Looks like 3 signed up so far :'(

More chances to podium, Mark!!

Majority will sign up next week. The consideration in the past for me has been time start, racing Masters at 8:30am means aprox 5:30am wake up to get there around 7:30am -- vs Cat 3 at noon, which is wake up at 7:30am and get there all chill at 10am or earlier. 

I am only half joking about the podium, JP got on it last year, documented on the Croton Cross thread. It is the NY State Championships this year, so got me thinking might be worth the wake up. 

Wellllllllp, Croton Cross is canceled (clip of the email is below). Very frustrating, very sad, very annoying. I think I'm going to head to CT for Newton cross that day instead now.

OH NO NO! I am full of sadness. 

Crosssosaurus and Newtown to the rescue!!

Crosssosaurus (Sat)
https://www.bikereg.com/64758

Newtown (Sun)
https://www.bikereg.com/63770

Crying.  On the inside.  Another great venue lost.  Another venue that was easy to get to via public transit lost.  

moving forward, What's replacing Croton as NY State Championship?

Answering my own question:

https://www.bikereg.com/uncle-sam-grand-prix

Same day, just in Troy, NY.

Anyone interested in going?

Leaning toward Uncle Sam on Saturday.

Don't shout at me ,but What about doing the Gunks gravel ride next week ?

Mark Taylor said:

Don't shout at me ,but What about doing the Gunks gravel ride next week ?

Had the same thought - Sunday? That way people can get their race fix on Saturday (and race for NYS champs)?

The gunks ride is not cyclocross.

The gunks ride is however FUN as opposed to cyclocross which is stupid and it hurts 

Uncle Sam or Crossasaurus on Saturday? I'm still leaning toward US near Albany because of state champs. To make it to 3/4/Masters at 1030a start we either go up the night before or leave nyc by 6ish to give everyone enough time to pin up and warm up.

I am 95% heading to Crossasaurus. Will likely race the 10am Masters race (which still means an early wake up for me) -- I have a car in reserve.

-- Could prob be convinced to race Crossasaurus 3/4 at noon, specially if other Kissenistas will do that race or offer a car ride.

Oof, races I can do at Crossasaurus are 4/5 @ 9a, 3/4 @ 12p, and Masters 40+ races @ 2:30 & 3:35p. Unfortunate they stuck the 40+ races at EOD.

If other 4/5 racers are game to wake up at 5a, I'm happy to drive for the 9a start and hang out to watch Eloy at 10a.

So many options this weekend!

TBD Forecast for Crossasaurus Awesome this Saturday! LFG!
https://www.tobedetermined.cc/journal/weekend-forecast-crossasaurus? 

I've signed up  

Looks like it's me and Lennart in the YOLO race. The 4/5 race at 9a is currently at 50 entries, it's going to be nutty at the start.

I signed up for the 50+ race at crossasaurus

PatrickGrehan said:

I signed up for the 50+ race at crossasaurus

same!

Rasputitsa crew reunion!

NYC Local Cyclocross Calendar for the next two weekends:

So far I am planning on HPCX this sunday. This is possibly the race that will be closest to NYC, aprox 45 minutes from Brooklyn. If dry, the sandpits will be race defining.

Also very likely I'll do Twinning on the 19. 

• Sun Oct 13 HPCX
• Sat Oct 19 Terror @ Twining CX (PACX Series)
• Sun Oct 20 Cooper River Cross p/b Aistriu
• Sun Oct 20 Belltown Cross

Who is for HPCX? let's go race bikes!!

Pencil me in for HPCX 3/4/Collegiate field. Masters fields start too late unfortunately.

Am I missing something or is there no dedicated all ages 4/5 group?

I'm in for the 3/4/collegiate field!

Yang's Crossasaurus 2024 breakdown:

TL;DR - I had fun. Let's hang out and ride bikes and eat pizza.

• Woke up to reg table alarm (4am), packed up and picked up Lennart and Eloy.
• Note for next time: 3 bikes to the roof with creative Seasucker placements. 
• We have like 900 tools between us and the single tool used was an allen key for through-axels.
• Quick drive on the turnpike to Philly area where we speculated on possible NYC CX race venues.
• Eloy may have gotten an extra 15 mins of sleep in the back seat
• Timed it perfect, got to Crossasaurus with a close spot to the reg/start
• Lennart and I leisurely pinned up and did a recon lap. Fun, fast course with little to no reason to dismount (foreshadowing).
• Just before the start Lennart notices that we're pinned up on the wrong side and we're hastily repinning as call ups begin
• Seems like call ups are based chronologically on race registration. Lennart and I are basically last row.
• START - it's obviously slow going at the back, but I pick up 6 or 7 slots to move up before the first turn into the little wooded section.
• Turn into the second little off camber wooded section bump and of course it's a traffic jam. I am forced to dismount and am promptly roundhouse back kicked by the guy in front of me getting off his bike. Hecklers laugh.
• I pick up a few more spots riding out of the woods into the straight gravel path into the grass chicanes. I am BOOKING IT.
• People are moving slow I'm riding aggressively, picking up one or two spots. I've got 40mm knobby tires baby!
• I "ride the tape" a little too hard and out of one corner all of a sudden my wheel decides it doesn't want to move. I look down and my drivetrain is mummified with yellow barrier tape. My race is over.
• Patrick comes by from the pit and asks what is going on I think. I have adrenaline in my ears and I'm just shouting words while I take my wheel off (hooray quick release) and spend a minute unwrapping tape from my chainrings and cassette.
• Fumble the wheel reinstall, but second try gets me going. I just lost over 2.5mins, but I'll be damned if I didn't just wake up at 4a and drove 2 hrs to DNF.
• I dig deep and sprint out of there.
• Somewhere after the start/finish, I see in the distance the absolute back of the field. Rabbits! By the time I get to the pit area I've caught up to 2 riders, picked them off and see a few more in the distance. Motivation to keep hustling.
• Back stretch wooded section I catch 2 more guys and by lap 3 gravel road, I hit up on the back wheel of one guy who asks if I'm lapping him and I yell as I pass, "I'M DYING AND DEAD FING LAST."
• Just around pump track I see one lone rider up ahead so I pin my HR to catch up. I'm cross eyed near the pit straight away and I'm within 5 meters of his back wheel. I put my head down and go and find myself tangled in more course tape. Hecklers laugh as I scoot back onto the course.
• I empty whatever reserves I have and by the time we're passing the start/finish I'm drafting him but can not pass.
• I'm glued to the wheel and on up and around the off camber little dirt hill (where I was roundhouse kicked) and in the little grassy chicane my tires slide out and I'm on the ground.
• My companion yells out to me "let's go!" as he speeds off and all I can do is chase him around the course 20 meters behind. He ultimately finishes 7 seconds ahead of me. Ugh.
• Even worse just as I'm heading into the home stretch near the pit, I hear hecklers yelling "one side you're about to get lapped!"
• I am on the final straightaway and mustering up the biggest sprint I have left in me, but get caught 25 meters from the line and I look up and the officials tell me it's over. 
• One more cool down lap later, wishing I had just a little more gas left in me to not have been lapped.

Lennart and I regrouped afterwards and I think he had fun! He wandered off to check out the scene when I caught back up to him in the other parking lot near the spectator area a physical fight broke out in the other parking lot. Ah egos in amateur sports...

Had a blast watching the masters race, hanging afterward, road trip tunes and hitting up Joe & Pat's as we passed through Staten Island.

Newton Cx Recap: What a time, what a time.

I set out for CT at 11 to make it by 12:30 so I could preride and get reacquainted with the course before we set off at 2:15. I pull up and GPS put me about 35 minutes away from the venue. Woof. Goodbye preride, we're doing it live today!

Call ups are based on the CT Cx Cup points and I have none, so my call up is last row. Oy vey, but it's a hilly course and my legs felt good so I'm thinking I can make up a few spots off the line. Whistle blows and we're off and I find a small gap and have a good start. I pick up a bunch of places and then fall in line as we climb a small hill towards some switch backs. I see another opening to pick up a few places, I'm impatient and take it. I jump ahead another 3 wheels, and come into a 180 degree turn into an off camber section on the inside line. This is the very wrong line. I have no space to take the turn and lose my rear wheel and I'm on my ass (this is where pre-riding would have been helpful). By the time I get myself up and going again, I'm DFL. Ugh.

The rest of the race is a scramble. I find a flow and feel like I'm riding well. I catch a few riders here and there, the announcer was great at hyping up all the riders as we came through, but the field is strung out and I'm not making up a ton of ground. I passed a few riders and spent most of the rest of the race chasing a ROR rider. I get close but never catch him. We end up getting lapped and I'm disappointed but at the same time I'm cooked and dying on the pedals so not needing to do another lap is also music to my ears. Last lap, I end up racing with a Thule rider and pass him on the big climb. As we come back down the hill through the turns and the sand pit I know he's right behind me. I'm dying but want to finish with a bit of dignity so I sprint with everything I have left and hold him off. It's a stellar 21st place for me. As I'm catching my breath the ROR rider comes over and says I was good motivation to keep pushing; glad I can be of service fellow NYer.

Next up are the NJ Cross Cup races!

Matt Budofsky said:

I'm in for the 3/4/collegiate field!

Crap, can't do HPCX, thought it was Saturday not Sunday and I have fam stuff going on.

Quick and dirty HPCX Race Report:

Got there with time to pre-ride and get to know the course. The sand was doing sand things but 100% rideable and was flowing through it nicely. The rest of the course was a bit less technical than in years past but holy fitness batman, the climb on the back end was no joke.

I got a decent mid-pack start and was following KCC Alumni Jame Reeder's wheel heading into the sand. The first stretch out was good and I had the power to float on through, until the very end where the sand was deep and I pulled out of my pedal. Womp womp. Got clipped back in, rode some more sand and was cruising. I made up 2 more places running the stairs and was sitting squarely midpack. 

Laps 2 and 3 were uneventful. Me and a group of 5 other riders stayed pretty tight with one another. We'd all make passes here and there but there was no real changes. On Lap 4 the pack kind of fell apart and then a rider from ROR (I think his name is Jackie) went down in the sand right ahead of me and I had to jump off to run through which led me to losing 2 places and any hope of getting back in touch with the remnants of the pack. Oh well, what can you do? For the rest of lap 4 me and another rider fought it out. I'd pass him, he'd pass me, I'd pass him again and as we came through for bell lap, he remarked that was a fun lap. I agreed and said let's do it again and that I bet we could catch the rider in front of us. My wife heard this and started to heckle us and ask if we were racing or just out for a friendly ride.

We kept it up through the first half of the lap, but on the last climb after the stairs he left me behind. I kept it clean through the finish and ended up 23/43 and 6th in the cat 4 state championship. It was my best race of the season and probably the first race I've ever felt good about riding in sand.

Solid start to NJ Cross Cup and onto Cooper River next week!

Matt looked good out there. Got to hear his wife Sam heckle him. It was funny



Here are some pics from the GoPro of the 50+ race. I had a good start but wasn't able to stay with the big guns. I rode the sandpits cleanly and was able to overtake Eloy at the finish line. I am going to try and put together the GoPro footage, but in the meantime here are some shots.

A fast start


Ryan from Brooklyn


Eloy looking SUPER SHARP


Harry hit my back wheel in the sand but kept it upright


Former Kissena Marc lunging over the barriers


Eloy looking Pro


Tom made me look like I was standing still


van der Katz