Due to scheduling conflicts with Noho, Sly Fox Cross has often been missed on the TBD calendar. I got the chance to race in 2024 and was eager to convince everyone that this year we should all take the trip down to Circle of Progress Drive to cross this off our list. Given the dearth in local CX racing this year — I’ve been feeling the need to cling to the remaining events on the calendar.
So this week is going to be Sly Fox week on the Journal, starting with this race report alongside photos from Lulu, then we’ll have a massive gallery of images from Matt tomorrow, closing things out with an opinion piece from Shane on hand-ups in cyclocross. Stay tuned!
Elite Women’s Race Report by Hannah
I love a brewery race. In addition to Sly Fox, I also got the chance to go to Tree House CX this year. For me, it encapsulates the perfect CX atmosphere. It brings a bit of silly as well as different communities together – the local CX community and the local brewery community. Sly Fox in particular is known to lean into the silly with its gargantuan run up, dotted with people in costume trying to feed you beer, pickles and doughnuts.
Our race was 75% NYC folks as our field was split between DCCX and Sly Fox. We got off to a strong start and blazed single file through the first gravel and woods section. We next took on the grass pinwheel and were greeted with two PVC pipes to hop over as the toll for entry. Still we were all bunched together as a group. Next to the course’s piece de resistance; an awkward dusty and rutted right turn (where I was faster tripoding than riding) and the run-up.
The run-up was the coolest part. On course, you could hear when anyone was on the run-up from the jeers and cheers. I took the run-up conservatively the first few laps just like I discussed on our teams’ weekly coaching call – as soon as you lose momentum hop off. On lap 4 I threw caution to the wind and said f it. I knew folks ahead of me were getting further, let’s see how far I can go. I got most of the way up, dismounted on the wrong side and fumbled the remount but got my loudest cheers of the day.
Now that your legs are jello from the hill, it seems like it was the perfect time to send you over the barriers on course. Did these barriers make you feel slow at barriers; hell yeah they did. Last on the lap was the power section. After the excitement of the first half of the course, these sections, while really boring, were one of the only places where you can start to establish gaps or make up places by laying down watts. I made a slick pass on the power section in the woods on lap 2 only to get creamed by the person I passed on the start finish straight.
I ultimately rolled in for third and was stoked for my best result of the season!
There was some brouhaha this year surrounding DQs for taking hand-ups on the hill. Technically, hand-ups are against USAC rules as feeding may not be allowed at a race or is only limited to the pit lane. At the professional / competitive levels, I see where a rule like this makes sense. However, at the local amateur bike race at the brewery….it seems a bit out of place. But this is something that Shane will write about more later this week.
