After a month (!) of proof that the local cyclocross scene is alive and kicking, we’re back at one our favorite races of the calendar - loved not only for its proximity to NYC, but for its challenging course, iconic sandpit. The Rutgers Cycling team is still doing us all proud, presenting one of the best courses of the season: HPCX.

Weather

As I stood outside on this first weekend of October, cooking in the somehow still feels like 95 degrees weather, watching Jenny Rissveds soar to another world cup victory with an ice sock the size of softball on her back, I thought, “will we ever have cyclocross weather again?”

Eh, Close enough. You’re still wearing shorts, but you won’t need an ice sock and the ground might even still be a little wet in the morning. Heck, you might need an extremely light jacket for pre-ride or at the start line.

Course

Is HPCX a power course or a technical course? The answer is yes. HPCX exists in a perfect liminal space where it does not suit one kind of rider versus another. HPCX absolutely rules. The TL;DR of the course is: Start, Sand, Sand, Climb, Turns, Barriers, Climb, Stairs, Climb, Descend.

The course starts on pavement (as one does) with an immediate sweeping left hand turn on to grass that leads to a series of short turns on the lakeside of the park. All those turns really serve to set you up for HPCX’s first iconic feature: the double sandpit. You go through the sand one way, go back on the grass, a few turns later come back and go through it again the other way. The sand is always somehow rideable, but rideable is not always fast or reliable. The only thing you you can reliably count on is that it will be complete chaos on the first lap of your race.

So it is here that you make your first important choice of the day: do you want to run the first lap to ensure you make it through the first lap traffic unscathed and maybe a few spots ahead of where you started, or are you committed enough to riding that you are also willing to become everyone’s new favorite CX photo?

After the sand, you’re doing some surprise climbing, but it’s very gradual and a good place to put down power and pick off a few people before coming into the first turny bit of the course, which leads you directly into the barriers. The turns are nice and wide enough to make you feel fast and good at turning, but the difference between those who can really drive their bikes and those who can’t, will be obvious.

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After the barriers, you head into a small rooted woods section that seems to trip people up (stop staring at the roots!) and then you are off on the most grueling part of the course - a steady climb on road/gravel that ends with Belgian stairs. It will feel bad! If it doesn’t feel too bad, it’s a great time to pass the person right in front of you and make them feel really bad. But make sure you save enough energy to get your wheel up and over the belgian stairs and the little bit of climb that comes after. Reasonable minds may disagree, but there is abenefit to riding the stairs at HPCX, if only because the remount afterward is uphill and that’s just never very fast. Pro tip: If you run the stairs, run a little further ahead to remount when the ground levels off a bit. It’s still quite steep at the top of the stairs!

The whole section can really zap your legs, but you just need to power through knowing that recovery is on the way in the form of a super fun twisty downhill that makes up the rest of the course. It’s got off cambers! It’s got turns! You go real fast! If you are comfortable on descents and with your cornering technique, any time lost climbing can be made up here. That is, if the acorns don’t decide to have their way with you.

Main takeaways? There is no prize for riding the sand, there is no prize for riding the Belgian stairs, and the prize is actually the friends we made along the way all the people you passed running those features instead of trying to prove something.

Gear

It has not rained and it continues to not rain and there is a lot of sand here. Bring your fast tires, for sure. Some day I swear we’ll all finally be riding muds and wearing long sleeves, but not this weekend. This weekend will still be fast and dry.

Hangs

HPCX has ample space for team tents to set up, and perfectly placed to allow you to heckle your friends not only once, not twice, but three times, including the barriers, without ever leaving the comfort of your camping chair. But I highly recommend taking a trip over to the sand to watch some of the best cross shenanigans this side of Koksijde.

And while the hangs are good, have you also considered hanging out less and taking advantage of the $15 discount on a second race reg? You can race twice and even still have time to hang! Amazing!