The cyclocross season starts in September for us in Edmonton. Some years we’ve (apparently) had snow right for the first races. There are kind of three aspects to the season for me. A bunch of training, the casual races and the sanctioned Alberta Cup races.
Training is training. I ride up and down hills and in parks.
Wednesday Night Worlds
Much like the Fat Tire Tuesday races, Edmonton has a series of $5 cx races in ‘cross season. The A group starts a minute before the B group which starts a minute before the C group and everyone races for about 25 minutes.
- Race 1 2024-09-04: stravalink There were so many people at Capilano Park it was great. As I’ve discovered is usual there, I hated the “down a steep hill then u-turn to climb it again” manoeuvre. On one of my laps (I did 5) I got tangled in the tape (my downhill cornering could use some work) and had to run up the hill, but I made it through the rest of the times cleanly. I felt like I was in decent shape but man, I work a lot harder than when I do practice laps out there.
- Race 2 2024-09-11: I had to work. Boooooo. Apparently they finished up just as the rain started.
- Race 3 2024-09-18: stravalink Back at Capilano Park and a slightly different course. I think this one was easier. They had a down a hill then up u-turn, but the really sharp one was in a smaller downhill zone so you didn’t have as much speed to shed. And the one with the bigger downhill had a couple of bends to it and a much wider corner at the bottom (going around a tree) which was much easier to handle.
1 - Race 4 2024-09-25 stravalink I was slow slow slow down at Argyll Park but I managed most of the course smoothly enough. I was working on my leaning through my descending turns, which will hopefully help my confidence at the weekend’s race.
- Race 5 2024-10-02 stravalink Back at Capilano where I decided to try something different by going hard at the beginning and trying to stay with the faster folk in my B group. I managed to do it for a couple of laps but then faded and got passed. I ended up in front of my benchmark person in the group and only got lapped by the A group once.
ABA Cyclocross Cup Races
These are the real races. Ability categories go Novice, Sport, Expert, Open, unless it’s provincials or the Western Challenge, which is done by age categories since they are also qualifiers for things like Nationals. Races I participated in will have an asterisk below.
- Deadgoat Supercross* & Peloton “Lampy’s Revenge” CX
- Western Challenge CX & Drie Zussen Superprestige
- Juventus Jim Horner Grand Prix* & ERTC School of Cross*
- Hardcore Hop-N-Hurl* & Puncheur Cross
- Bicicross & Terrascape Beans + Barley
- Crosstoberfest Turduckenprestige](../crossbow2024/)
- Velocity Cyclocross](../velocitycross2024/)* & Tubs on Tubs Provincials](../tubsontubs2024/)*
- Snakes + Ladders](../snakesladders2024/)
Best2 ABA Cup Racers
This is based on rankings from CrossResults where a lower number of points is better.
Women
| Name | World Rank | CR Points | ABA Wins 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christiane BILODEAU | 170 | 349.05 | 5 |
| Shantel KOENIG | 192 | 359.06 | 2 |
| Ella MYERS | 196 | 359.77 | 1 |
| Annie SCOTT | 246 | 376.96 | 2 |
| Susanne MCARTHUR | 297 | 389.62 | 0 |
Men
| Name | World Rank | CR Points | ABA Wins 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finn BORSTMAYER | 408 | 224.08 | 5 |
| Mark FAGNAN | 449 | 228.13 | 2 |
| Ryan MACLEAN | 546 | 236.69 | 0 |
| Andrew DAVIDSON | 571 | 238.01 | 1 |
| Sean GERMAINE | 699 | 247.54 | 1 |
Running up that hill - photo by Agniewska. I spent most of the race following a dude (in red in the picture). In the fifth (& final) lap when we had to get off our bikes and carry them up a super steep grassy hill I got past him. Usually I pass people going uphill and then they pass me on the flatter parts but I was feeling good and was all, “I can’t let him take that back!” I managed the steep downhill that followed the runup and made it up the next climb smoothly. Amazingly (for me), I actually had enough left in me to keep the power down through the rest of the corners and flat bits and the barriers the rest of the way to the finish, like half a lap. ↩︎
Sidney MCGILL and Nico KNOLL are our actual best best racers (ranked 31 and 151 in the world respectively as of this writing), but they haven’t raced in ABA races this year, having bigger fish to fry. ↩︎