What makes a great cyclocross course

For those of us who have raced cyclocross (or Cross for short)... we all know what a great cross course looks like. But for anyone reading one of these blogs and is new to the sport... Cycloross, never mind what makes up a good Cross course will be as foreign as trying to pick up a new language, so let give you a bit of insight into our crazy little world.

Cyclocross is like racing a combined on road/off road obstacle course, on a road bike with knobbier tires. A max of 20% of the course is paved roads, the balance is either dirt roads, off camber grass, gravel, or some combination of the two. The course is about 1 - 2 miles in length and we race the lap several time. The races are just shy of a hour... but trust me, you are racing at full tilt, so for that hour... it's about all the pain you can handle.

The sport runs from September thru January so the winter elements are clearly one of the obstacles... snow, ice and mud being one of them. Some of the obstacles are man made, others are what the terrain has to offer. I think it's fair to say that we are off the bike and running about 10% -20% of the time in good conditions... and I have been off the bike up to 35% of the time in really ugly (mud) conditions.

So, with the above in mind... what makes a good cross course a great cross course? It has to be fun, challenging, interesting and favors NO ONE specific rider. Some courses favor big horse power riders and the highly technical riders are at a disadvantage, other courses are so technical the strongest rider doesn't have a chance if their technical skills aren't as sharp, so you really want a well balanced course that will bring the best out of the cross racer. A well balanced course isn't easy to build and with that said... much of it is weather dependent, which leads me to my main thoughts for today.

There has been a ton of chatter around the National Cyclocross course in Madison. Yup... It's already built (yes, these courses are pain stakingly laid out well in advance of the race). As soon as the course was built, some dude jammed a camera on his helmet, cruised around the course and gave a 10 meter by 10 meter description of the course in great detail... which as you can imagine, caused every armchair cyclocross course building expert the opportunity to criticize the fact that it was either "too flat, too boring, too easy... it's going to turn into a super highway with no technical aspect at all"... yaadaa, yaadaa.

I am not going to offer comment about the course (at least not until I get there)... but I will tell you about what happened a few years ago in Kansas when they said exactly the same thing. That was BEFORE the ice storm that we got hit with here in NE that left us without power for days... remember that??? Well, that storm blew right through Kansas the day before we got into town to race Nationals and when we went to look at the course, what everyone initially complained as being too flat, boring, easy and unchallenging, now had frozen ice standing on the entire course the consitency of a cheese grater. Where there wasn't ice, there was frozen rutted mud. NOW everyone was whining it was too dangerous to race and they would have to either change the course or postpone the race for a week, because too many people would be injured.

Me... I was hoping for a minor miracle... I was hoping for a spectacularly massive power outage and things would just get pushed out a few hours so the cheese grater ice would start to thaw into at least slush, but Tom advised me, "thats why they had generators, we're gonna race on the ice". So ... on that note, I reassessed my tire pressure, let some air out and learned how to race on cheese grater ice (which by the way, if you crash on cheese grater ice, it will shred a skin suit faster than you can say "Wooopseee").

So... it turned out to be a great Nationals Course after all. It was fun, challenging, techical and it did in fact bring the best out of the cross racer favoring no one particular rider... other than maybe putting the "baby's" at a disadvange.

I checked the Madison weather this morning... it's a mix of ice and snow. The boring course is now in the process of becoming less boring!

Talk with you soon.

Kath

The Beginning

Where to start...

After what feels like a million races and as many crashes (Paul Curley once told me if you don't crash a lot, you're not racing hard enough, so that's the story I'm sticking with!)... what is left of the 2011 Cyclocross season, boils down to 2 races spanning the weeks of January 3rd through January 15th, for all of the proverbial cyclocross marbles.

This Sunday, a few of us will be heading up to Madison WI for the Cyclocross National Championships which begins the week of January 3rd. On Jan 9th, we'll then head down to Louisville, KY for the Masters' Cyclocross World Championships to race the following weekend. The Worlds are big in more ways than one... this is the first time the World Championships are being held on US soil. So, more US competitors than usual will be vying for the coveted rainbow jersey.

Wow, talk about pressure. Ok, who's the funny guy who hid the toilet paper!

Before jumping head first into what looms in front of us... I want to briefly highlight some of the things that are now fond memories of the past season.

In looking through the rear view mirror... it's been a epic cross season. The racing has been a mixture of fun and excitement, with 100+ women fields and 10-15 of us slugging it out every race. But racing aside, I've had a epic time this year and I just wanted to share a few highlights from my memory banks while they are still fresh.

What initially started out as a one time offer from the Tripp's for me to "stay the weekend in their motor home" turned into a weekly tradition of what appeared to be a major space mission with the docking of the space station (the Tripp's Motor Home), the Space Shuttle (Little Georgie Boy...George's motor home), and the Lunar Space Module (the Blue Steel Van) every weekend at the various race venues.

The race promoters were good sports about allowing us adequate space for our "rigs"... which often included some variation of the blue steel pop-up tent, Georges tiki torches, Blue Steel Banners, several folding chairs and tables, fire pits, portable grills, bike repair stands, motor home awnings (with lights and various things dangling off of them...). There were moments I half expected the Beverly Hillbillies to roll around the corner and join us, they certainly would have fit in just fine.

What was an even cooler unplanned development was what took place after the first few races... once the Blue Steel rigs were docked, it was if a battle cry went out to rally all the team members cars together in the same parking location. Every race... every weekend, Blue Steel teammates would huddle together, supported each other, hung out and had a lots of fun together.

I have to say, having the luxury of staying right at the venue and basically rolling out of bed and out on the course was something you can't begin to put a price tag on. It saved valuable time but more importantly, it lowered our stress level by about 1000% by allowing a regular routine with zero worry. Wow... I loved it. Not to mention, I developed a strong friendship with Karen, Jeff, George, Sheila as well as the rest of the Blue Steel Team during the course of the racing season. Thanks to all for allowing me to be a part of it.

So, now what????

Well... This weekend is our last training race. Yup... on New Years Eve, a bunch of cyclocross lunatics have organized a unofficial Cyclocross race down on the Cape, to help those of us heading to Nationals get a final tune up race into our legs. Then the next morning (New Years day) Jeff, Karen, Tom Stevens and I, will pile into 2 vans and start heading North towards Madison. We will take a total of 9 bikes, a bazillion sets of race wheels, bike cleaning equipment, repair stand, tools and parts, every piece of cold weather riding gear I can put my hands on, plus a bunch-o-other crap and stuff it into our vans. I'm not sure where Tom will sit but since I'm driving, I'm at least assured a spot :).


So this brings us to the current moment... I'm nervous just thinking about heading out to another Nationals never mind Worlds. But... One of the things I am, is a bike racer... it's what I do.

Over the next day or so, I will drop another note into the blog and update all of you on our progress and hopefully provide you with a laugh or two.

Until then, I wish all of you a Happy New Year... stay warm and I will talk with all of you soon.

Kath