The 2009 MABRAcross Series

This Sunday marks the start of the MABRAcross Series with Ed Sander Memorial Cyclocross at Lilypons Water Gardens in Buckeystown, MD.  The Series is the biggest it has ever been with 9 events sporting 13 categories apiece and increased field limits in most of them.  Check out the calendar and register for all of them!


9/27 Ed Sander Memorial Cyclocross
10/3 Breast Cancer Awareness -- Cyclocross Challenge
10/4 "Kelley Acres" Cross
10/25 DCCX Presented By Family Bike Shop
11/8 Tacchino Cyclocross
11/15 Urban Cross
11/21 Howard County Double Cross Day 1 - Schooley Mill Cross
11/22 Howard County Double Cross Day 2 - Rockburn Cross
11/29 MABRAchamps


MABRAland has serious cross fever with its own 9-race series, 4 of 10 MAC races, 3 independent races, and many more a short distance away.  We promoters ponder how on earth the region has managed 25% growth per year in cross with no signs of it slowing down.  Charm City itself grew nearly 35% this year.  Rockburn doubled between its first and second year, and in our third year we're adding another day at Schooley Mill.  DCCX has over 180 entries in a day and a half.  Craziness!


Anyway, the Series.  This year we're adding a team competition which will rank teams based on their top 10 points scorers at each race.  The Championship will be worth 50% more points in the individual standings.  The promoting clubs have already put over $11,000 on the line and more is coming.  Individuals points will go deeper, except for the Men 4's.

Oh, you poor 4's, we've got our eye on you.

4's will be scored on upgrade points directly, so it will become immediately evident when you need the boot to the B's.  As if stalking crossresults.com for sandbaggers wasn't enough.  Just between Charm City and Ed Sander, a number of riders have moved up after their first test of the legs.  We hope to see some ferocious competition in the elites, and rightly so.  Remember that $11,000 I mentioned above?  Yep, almost all for you guys and gals.


Of course, if cash money doesn't blow your skirt up, HoCo2xCx will also be awarding pie.

Charm City Cross @C3cx

Around the time when groundhogs are examining their shadows and pondering their own unremitting decline versus the risks of first foragings, the equally skittish Mid-Atlantic roadie shakes off the torpor of winter on some Trade Zones, and these upright ground squirrels--or perhaps "road squirrels"--begin to lust for what all marmots seek in La Primavera: Jeff Cup.

However, around the time when the foliage reverses its progression from green back to red and brown and eventually black and simpler forms fatten up for the winter, a more ferocious creature heightens its activity.  Like wolves prowling the woods and dales in the sharp air of autumnal dusk, we crossers hunger for the first trophy for our packs: Charm City Cross.

We are nothing short of ravenous with 512 entries on BikeReg, and probably more by the time you read this.  The scent of UCI points is attracting alpha crossers to the hunt, and there are only 5 days remaining to pre-register.  Charm City Cross is the ceremonial start of cyclocross season, and both the race and the season promise to be the biggest, baddest ever, fueled by rapacious fervor for embrocation and mastik gripping the Mid-Atlantic.  

So if you are pondering your own shadow, show it no fear and join the Mid-Atlantic Brotherhood (and Sisterhood) this Sunday, September 20 at Druid Hill Park to watch or race crossers who would devour your legs, but then have a beer with you afterwards!

2007 by the Numbers (and the Photos and the Blogs)

Many thanks to the folks who took pictures or wrote something about our inaugural race.  We'll have 2008 stuff up eventually.

Results

Course

Photos

Shots by FJ Hughes

Elite Men and Masters

Li’l Belgians

U17 Juniors

B Men

B Masters

C Men and B Women

Blogs

Johnny Frites

Beer Frites Waffles

EnduraTech

Opening Day

Per my previous post, yesterday was Opening Day on BikeReg.  I was probably the most relaxed I've been on an opening day, but its still something that makes me nervous, and I neurotically check the confirmed rider list every ten minutes to see how it's doing and who's on it even though I get an email for every entry (that I neurotically check every five minutes).

Opening Day is the moment the race takes on a life of its own.  Since October last year, this hoopla has been something in my hands and the hands of a few others to shape and wield.  By the time all is said and done, 14 months after this all began, nigh on 70 to 80 people will have lent a hand, but I know most of them and I know what they are doing and how and why.  Some, by mutually beneficial agreement, as in the case of our sponsors who support what we do.  Some, hired professionals like our officials.  Some, out of the goodness of their heart and zeal for this sport and this race, as with our volunteers.

But Opening Day marks the day the race is born after a long and arduous though happy gestation and begins to support itself without me.  Total strangers sign up to race, and this fact boggles my mind because I did not bring it into being, and even more amazing is these strangers tell their friends who also come out to race.  These people get something out of this race, and I have no way of knowing what that something is (unless I ask, and I frequently do).  The other uncanny moment is the morning of the race when all of these people show up and do exactly what they are supposed to do: find registration, warm up, race, clean up, eat, cheer, pit for their friends.  All we did was run some tape and send a few emails, and this seemingly chaotic but highly functioning thing with no central conscience comes into being.  It's a silly bike race; it's amazing!

And it starts on Opening Day.

Registration is open!

Registration is open for Howard County Double Cross!  Get in while the gettin' is good--call-ups are based on points and order of pre-reg.

Go here:
http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=8979

Do it now!

Rockburn's other half?

Have you heard about Rockburn Cross's other half, Schooley Mill Cross?

The good people of Howard County caught the cyclocross bug and wanted more.  The inaugural Rockburn Cross in December 2007, while relatively small at only 191 entries, significantly exceeded expectations and got rave feedback.  For '08 we joined the MABRAcross Series, moved a month earlier and anticipated even better attendance.  We started with a projected attendance baseline of 200, hoping for more like 250.  (We got 386, plus Li'l Belgians.)  Nonetheless, being the insatiable type, I began scouting satellite photos of Howard County's other large parks to see what other cross potential there may be.  I saw a few that looked like they may be able to fit a course, and picked Schooley Mill Park near Clarksville to visit in early October.

At the same time--a full month before Rockburn's second edition--the county contacted me asking if I could put on another race in March-ish.  I explained that cross is not a Spring sport but also suggested they consider a road or mountain bike race.  But I also asked if we could add another cross race in Fall.  They said "sure, have you ever been to Schooley Mill Park?"  It was meant to be.  Putting on another race is no easy thing, but Team BBC was in the hunt for a race to promote at the same time, so another star aligned when they agreed to take on the event.  Two venues only 20 minutes apart made for the perfect opportunity to create a real double weekend and so Howard County Double Cross was born.

Now, I may be biased, but Schooley Mill Park may be one of the best venues we've got.  It's as spectator-friendly as BCA Cross but as big as Rockburn.  It's rife with "natural" obstacles--so many that we actually won't even use half of them.  It will have indoor registration and heated bathrooms.  You can check out the course map here to see what the Boys in Pink of Team BBC have designed.  So mark your calendars and plan on spending the weekend on Howard County.  We are also working on a race hotel, so spend less time on the beltway and more time recovering for Rockburn!

First it was BikeReg...

First it was BikeReg.  Then a website.  Then Facebook.  Then Facebook again.  Then Twitter.  Now our content has become so prodigious that it is time to stash it all in a Blog.  Here we will post race related news, history (all two years of it), side commentary, snide commentary, and perhaps the occasional musing on tire pressure and/or pie.  Check back when Facebook or Twitter tells you.

"Gird up thy tubulars now like a crosser: 

I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.  

Wilt thou also disannul my obstacles? 

Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be victorious?  

Hast thou a leg like Nys? 

Or canst thou bunny-hop with a bike like him?  

Deck thyself now with alluvium and embrocation; 

And array thyself with grifo and skinsuit.  

Cast abroad the speed of thy wrath: 

And behold every one that is proud, and abase him.  

Look on every one that is quick, and bring him slow; 

And spin down the torpid in their place.  

Hide them in the sand together, 

And bind their chains in secret.  

Then will I confess unto thee 

That thine own right leg can save thee."