Weekend Forecast: Charm City CX 2024
Now that we’ve shaken off all the dust that accumulated on our cross bikes and replaced it with some real dust (boy, it has been hot), it means it’s time for one of the best CX weekends of the year, the third race of the USCX series: Charm City Cyclocross in Baltimore.
Weather
People, I regret to inform you that it is still going to be hot.
Many of us boldly proclaimed we did not need ice socks at an 80-degree Whirlybird, even after Shane wrote a whole weekend preview telling us how much we needed ice socks at an 80-degree Whirlybird. “80 degrees!,” we (not the royal we but a plurality of actual people!) said, “is not hot.” (Editor’s note: anything over 70 is hot in CX.) But all it took was some good ole fashioned heat stroke for us to learn that racing on a fully exposed course at midday in 80-degree weather is very hot, actually. 76 with almost no shade at Charm will also feel very hot.
So three weeks into mid-Atlantic/Northeast cx season, I am here to confirm that keeping your jersey on ice in a cooler before racing is a Very Good Idea™. A $2 bag of ice, and a pair of .99cent pantyhose from the dollar store is a small price to pay to keep you and up to 5 of your teammates and friends feeling cool and not necessarily faster but at least not DNFing. Some people pay a lot more to just cool one single appendage, you know!
While being able to douse yourself with water in the heat is crucial, racing with a bottle poses some challenges at Charm. The infamous original flyover means you are shouldering your bike at least once per lap, and if you are a small person (me) with an appropriately sized bike (also me), you can not spare a square of triangle space.
One solution could be a friend in the pit with a bottle, but no promises on whether feeding in the pit or elsewhere will be permitted. Maybe if you look desperate enough as you pass club row, we’ll douse you with some water.
The Course
Annotations by the author of this article and not the good people of Charm City CX, who are doing a really great job.
Charm is a good, solid, American cyclocross course - it is big and wide and grassy and has all kind of turns and some climbing and descending and a few “features” that exist but don’t really affect the outcome as much as the turning and the climbing.
The flyover (the original) exists, but will never be a decisive feature. It’s just stairs and a nice fun, descent. It is there to pay homage to the construction sponsor gods and for the ‘grams. Do not fear it.
Mansion Hill. Everyone always talks about the off camber, and my updated Charm hot take is that off camber is the least relevant part of the thing. What is more relevant is how you feel like you are dying as you slowly climb up to it, whether you leave enough space to the person in front of you so that you can put down the two pedal strokes necessary to get onto the off camber, and what fun new exit route they have planned for us this year. If you don’t trust the person in front of you, take a dig on the climb and get ahead of them, it will be worth it.
On Day 2, you enter the off camber from the other side (the right on the map) - usually via a run up (for the normals, anyway). If you stay on the non-drive side of your bike (where you typically end up when you dismount), you’ll find yourself downhill from your bike on the off camber when you get to the top, making remounting difficult, if not impossible. Reposition yourself on the drive side as you run uphill and you’ll be able to just slide onto your saddle once you hit the top. This one trick can really earn you a position if you’re still bunched up going into the hill.
The best part of Charm is that it is fast and you always feel like you are racing your bike. In some spots you might feel better about how you are racing your bike than others, but you will always feel like you are racing. You might also be getting lapped by the junior who started a minute behind you because we are at Charm, but you are still racing your bike.
Gear
We are once again looking at a dry charm, the same kind of weather that had me confidently recommend file treads last year. Then we (again, I am legitimately referring to a plurality of people, this is not always a blog of my foibles) rode around on Saturday and it was…slippery? somehow? and we switched to mixes so who knows anything anyway. Grass has a mind of its own, but so do you and I trust you will make the best decision for yourself. I have never known anyone to be overconfident about their cyclocross skills.
Vibes
Things that are good about Charm:
Team Tent Location: Excellent. Optimized for being able to see almost the entire course and heckle people for extended periods of time, all while fussing around your own tent and warming up for your own race on the trainer. Bring a chair to park yourself in and your favorite cow bell, bull horn, or tuba.
Spectating: Superb. You can run to every part of the course easily and never miss a moment of the action. There’s always a good turn out for Charm, so expect to be cheered on by friends and strangers with equal enthusiasm.
Food: Quality. There are multiple food vendors, all located conveniently in the infield that are legit good and not just edible.
Elite Races: Our boy, Vinny, once the 11th(?) best Belgian cyclocross racer, is no longer taking his annual trip across the pond to scoop up UCI points. Instead we have the 6th(?) Best Dutch Woman, Manon Bakker, and the 1st Best French Woman (or at least the one wearing the national champs kit), Helene Clauzel, who have both come out here to tear things up in the women’s field. Sadly, we’ve lost GCN+ (RIP) coverage of the USCX series, but recaps from Go Cross and Rochester indicate we are going to see a Good Race. The men will also be racing their bikes.
Reg closes on Tuesday! As ever, the TBD (and NYC/Philly) crew will be situated on tent row, cheering our little hearts out for you.
