Charm City CX weekend recap and a massive photo gallery
The 2022 edition of Charm City CX was undoubtedly memorable. Remnants of Hurricane Ian provided damp conditions on Saturday and a true mudder on Sunday. With a huge TBD crew in attendance, we thought the best way to recount the story was in listcicle form, with some of our top lessons, biggest mistakes and favorite memories.
We also have a massive 600+ image photo gallery linked at the bottom of this post (scroll down!). Stay tuned for more from Charm City on the Journal next week, including a race report from podium finisher Alvaro and a series of racer portraits from Scott.
Top lessons
Don’t bother pre-riding when it’s all just slop (Alex)
It was cold and pouring rain on Sunday. The course was changing by the minute. Everything anyone’s ever told me was that it’s important to ride a lap at race pace to get a sense for the lines you want during the race. I skipped it and felt pretty damn good about it.
Counterpoint, even if it’s all slop, take at least a few corners so you can feel how your bike slides. (Lucia)
If you’re racing in the after effects of a hurricane, maybe make sure both tents are staked and tied down (Vandy)
Case in point
Tent walls are great for trapping in warmth (Everyone)
But they also trap all of the humidity from sweaty racers - stay in the tent until you can’t stay in the tent any longer.
A plastic shopping bag doesn’t work super well at keeping a camera dry (Vandy)
Ehhh, better to invest in something else when photographing a race in a hurricane
Baseball cleats make excellent and inexpensive toe spikes (Diz)
Yes, buy them now. They are like little hands holding onto the mud for you.
“Run what you brung” is really only applicable in dry conditions. (Baker)
Warm up properly if this is your first cold-ish race of the season (Ben)
If you don’t want to race in the rain, it’s okay and you shouldn’t race if you don’t want to (Barb)
Top crashes
Getting clotheslined when your rear wheel gets caught on a stake, and your bike punches you in the face (Lucia)
Lucia had a rough one. On Sunday while she was carrying her bike through the U-turn and barricades her rear wheel got caught through the spokes onto one of the course stakes. The bike yanked her back, ripped out the valve from her rim, and (sadly) ended her race. Less than a minute later, she was sitting on the grass with her bike, laughing out loud about the whole thing. That’s cyclocross! She got back on it and raced later in the day!
OTB on last lap flyover into the metal barriers, resulted in a 90 degree saddle shift (Baker)
Baker had some spectacular moments on Sunday’s race, including going over the bars on the last lap and ending the race with his saddle rotated perpendicular to the bike.
Flyover into the mud (Alex)
I went down so many times I can’t really keep them apart in my mind (see note re: tire pressure) but I do remember binning it at the bottom of the flyover on the first lap of Sunday’s race. My bike went left and I went right, straight into the metal barricades. Honestly, I can’t believe there weren’t any worse injuries there given how many people were crashing in such proximity to hard steel.
Flyover into the mud Take Two (Barb)
I crashed a bunch of times on Saturday because I’m an idiot and I raced on pretty worn out mix tires. But no real consequences occurred until Sunday, when conditions were bad and got worse during the race. I came off the last flyover, turned once, and crashed into a metal barrier. I thought my time in the Never Broken a Bone club was over because my finger started to hurt a lot and immediately went numb. It was great! But the good news is that it’s not broken!
Top terrible decisions
Over-inflating my front tire and running my rear on empty on day 1 (Alex)
Tires that wouldn’t hold air, last minute panicked over-inflation to compensate, etc etc left me sliding out in every corner
Showing up with a bike that had terrible gearing for a mudder (Lisa)
Everyone who tried to get up the off camber on Sunday with no toe spikes
Using new shoes for a muddy race: too much tread that kept mud on the shoes and my feet out of the pedals (Scott)
Riding through mud with 40mm Maxxis Ramblers (Baker)
Racing in a field with juniors who are too young to race in the UCI field, but as fast as the elite racers
Not having a pit bike and learning how to pit! (Barb)
Top little victories
Using the bottom line to outrun people on the off camber (editor’s note: this is debatable!!)
Remembering you paid money to do this and it’s actually fun (Baker)
Deciding to race after a few hours of being a big baby about it (But also remembering that it’s OK to decide not to race!) (Diz)
Spending my first race pitting for someone after getting injured (Ben)
Almost catching my Cat 2 race nemesis (Barb)
Hanging out with the team and watching replays of the races that we just watched in person just like any group of normal people (Barb)
Top heckles
“Hey Curtis, look it’s Ben Brown from Farmer’s Daughter!” (Alex)
Ben spent some time with Curtis at the front of Farmer’s Daughter. Surely he remembers him, right??
“I’m running up here faster than you” (Yosef)
Day 2 Scott was struggling up the muddy hill after the stairs, Yosef ran the hill beside the tape to show Scott how easy it should be and what he was doing wrong
“Nice bottle cages, idiot” (Baker)
Baker rode with both of his bottle cages (without bottles) just because he’s Baker
“Is that Chadshack from Instagram??” (Ben)
It was.
“Find the green!” (Everyone, constantly, during every race)
Charm City CX PhotoGraphs By Matt
When not racing, we also spent much of the weekend capturing the action. A small selection of those Matt’s photographs is below, with a much larger gallery linked via Google Drive. You’re welcome to share any of these images via social media, but ask that you credit @ToBeDetermined.CC if you do so.
