Noho 2019, I’ve had this one penciled in on the calendar from the very start of the cross season. My first pilgrimage to the “holy land” of American Cyclocross. My only other experience with the NECX scene was NBX 2018 and I remember thinking “wow these crossers are fast” and I was excited to see the training grounds that had made those riders that way.

Before I get into the details of each day can I just say:

• 45 minutes is the perfect race length

• Northampton suits a wide array of cyclocrossers

• High line or low line it didn’t matter on the descent

• Trees hurt when you run into them

• The NECX scene is even faster than I remember

Day 1

We got to Northampton late on Friday night but just in time to experience the bitter cold that the early racers would face on Saturday morning. Thankfully I have amazing teammates who raced the early race and then came back to the hotel, so I didn’t have to be up at the crack of dawn and stand in the cold for hours.

Upon arrival to the course it was still very cold, a cold that my Australian bones are not used to feeling. Fun fact, before NBX last year I had never worn arm warmers racing cross, now at Noho my race outfit consisted leg warmers, a winter base layer, a snood, a cap all topped off with a long sleeve skinsuit.

The course for Day 1 had a lot of running which would have been great except I forgot my toe spikes and struggled to get up any of the climbs. What was really great about Noho this year was that I got to race with my old friend from Australia Nick Rhodes, who was out in the US doing a few cross races to see what cyclocross in the states is all about.

The pace of the race started out very hard and it took a while for the standard race groups to form. I kept losing multiple spots on the main run up, lesson learnt for next time. My biggest take away from the race was how fun the wooded section was, it reminded me of shredding the trails back home, something that isn’t easy to do in NYC.

The day was fun; I raced hard for 45 minutes, had a cheeky post-race vomit and then shot the Elite Women and Elite Men.

Day 2

From my very brief warm up, I thought the Day 2 course suited me better and it also helped that the race was in slightly warmer conditions. So warm in fact that I got to show off my freshly shaved legs!

My race was going well, getting up the ride up most laps, clearing it at least one time. I was in an awkward position by myself when I tried to hip and shoulder (Australian Football – look it up) a tree on the u-turn after the descent, needless to say it didn’t end too well. I didn’t fall off but my shoulder was stinging.

A few riders got back past me as I tried to regain my composure including my TBD teammate Clay. I started to feel better once we left the woods but didn’t have the legs to get back past Clay so I turned my attention to chatting to Clay to make sure we didn’t get caught by the youngens behind us.

Races 3&4 done and dusted for 27th and 24th! Up next for me in my short and sweet cross season is Rainey Park and NBX.