Weekend Forecast: Noho CX 2019
Words: Cullen MacDonald
Photographs: Matthew Vandivort
Hello. It’s me, your friend, Cullen. Look, I know you’re tired. Leaving early from work on Friday to get a rental car, loading it up, spending all weekend outdoors getting dirty and hurting, rushing home to drop your teammates and the rental car off, and then explaining to your roommates, “I swear I’ll clean up the bags and bikes and dirt in the hallway tomorrow” every single weekend. You’re ready for off-season.
To that I say, “boo you coward!” Some of the best races of the cyclocross season are still to come. Races with High Production Value™ featuring the best hangs, courses, and spectating are happening just around the corner, if you’d just hold on a little longer. This weekend features one I’ve never done before but have heard only good things about: Northampton International Cyclocross.
Let me start by quoting Clay’s guide to Noho posted last year:
Northampton is 'Cross Town, USA—for Pete's sake—the Holy Land of CX here in America. We're serious. Where else are you going to see Ellen Noble and Stephen Hyde ride from their houses to watch the morning races in plainclothes? Where else are you going to overhear two random old men at a diner arguing about how muddy the conditions are going to be at Sunday's race?
Noho—that's where. NEBRA makes its own rules up here. This is where National CX champions go to to train, folks. This is a place where there are more trails and ruts than roads. This is Adam Myerson and J.A.M. Fund territory; the rest of us are just visiting.
Because I’ve never done this race before, I feel I must leave it to the experts for a course preview. Below are two GoPro clips. The first is from Ellen Noble as she follows closely behind Regina Legge. Make note of all the features where Regina seems to roll away from Ellen. This course rewards folks who know how to “do a turn good”. Of course in the clip, power tends to be an equalizer as Ellen is always able to catch back up (worth noting that Ellen is also a world class bike turner, too).
The second clip is the men’s race, and features two different angles. The thing to note here is the nature of this course seems to welcome pack riding. Team Coach Jacob Fetty reminded us this week that the course is wide and can reward folks who race smart and stick with a group. If you want to attack, do it to get to the next group. If you’re losing steam, drop back to the group behind. Don’t be by yourself.
Ok now onto the thing everyone has been waiting for: Cullen’s Premium Weather Forecast. All of you have been clamoring for a better prediction after Clay’s bungled DC forecast, and I’m here to give it to you.
According to the best weather apps and none of the bad ones, we’ve got a cold one this weekend. Thursday evening showers will serve to soften the course during the setup and preview laps on Friday. Theres a chance some weird lines get burned in due to the warmup and course previews so be on the lookout for that Saturday morning.
Saturday brings us the coldest race day so far this year. 9am races will be a balmy 27º with some low wind. The sun will be out in full force showing a dramatic rise in temperature to 37º by the time 1pm races start, where the temp will stay until just after the elite fields finish. Throughout the day, wind will pick up so even though the temperature is rising, you’ll probably not shed many layers due to random gusts.
Sunday morning shows a very slight chance of rain but we at TBD feel it’s safe to call it a Dry Race Day™. Temps start off about ten degrees warmer than Saturday, starting at 36ª for the 9am races and rising by about 10 degrees by 2pm. The main thing to note on Sunday is the 10mph winds predicted. The wind will only increase the need to stay with a group if you want to do well.
I hope you’ll join me for one of the big ones. I know you’re ready to be done, but hold on for a little longer. I promise it’ll be fun.
As always, we’ll have a crew there. Come say hi!
Prior journal entries for reference:
NoHo CX Weekend Race Report (2017)
Noho CX Top Ten (2017)