Don’t worry if you don’t understand Flemish because “ongleooflijk” means exactly what you think it should mean and the only words we have in return are thank you. This year heralded the 10th edition of the AACX cyclocross race and the 8th edition held at South River Farm off Lock Raven Rd in Mayo on October 29th. The weather was perfect, albeit slightly warm for CX, with a fairly dry course except for the traditional boggy sections. We spent a lot of time up front this year mowing, trimming, and raking to make the course as nice as possible given that much of it is in a “wild” field most of the year. Not only did we reverse the course direction from prior years, but we changed the layout in the field a bit to reduce the “slog”, but we also added some new features including a double set of ridable stairs going up the hill, a “bullpen” at one end of the field, a new flowy single track section on top of the hill, flowy turns in the other end of the field, a set of chicanes on the backside of the maintenance yard and a faster approach to the “goat hill” which put is solidly on the ride/run line.
The customary way to measure the success of an event like AACX is through a profit & loss statement, but that’s boring so we’ve come up with our own list of key performance indicators that we believe will accurately represent the true experience of AACX!
| 320 | # of Total Riders |
| 15 | # of True Flandrians who doubled up at AACX |
| 1114 | Total Lap Count |
| 63 | Total Junior Racers |
| 35% | Percentage of Riders who Rode the Goat Hill every lap |
| 40% | Percentage of Riders who Ran the Goat Hill |
| 25% | Percentage of Riders who Tried to Ride the Goat Hill but ended up Running |
| 360 | Tacos consumed |
| 94 | Burritos Consumed |
| 242 | Combined hours spent building the course |
| 12 | Combined hours spent tearing down the course |
| 9 | Number of course laps driven on the Jacobson Mower |
| -42 | Number of parking spaces available during peak AACX |
| 0 | Neighbor complaints |
| 4’6″ | Size in diameter of the CX-tape ball from tear-down |
| 1 | Tree(s) worn smooth from people swinging around a turn |
| Lost count during the Juniors | Number of bad words said while trying to ride the Goat Hill |
| 1700 | # of Pictures available online by Ted Morgan |
| 0 | Reported Bee Stings |
| Someday! | # of Beers Consumed |
Pictures
Speaking of 1700 pictures, we paid Ted Morgan a flat fee to make all the shots he took free high resolution downloads for personal use for all competitors. Please head over to his site to grab your glam shots and post them on social media. Of course he’d love it if you tagged and followed him (@tedmorganphoto on Instagram or @tedmorgan on Facebook) to see more of his great work.
https://tedmorganphotography.zenfolio.com/p503176000
Final Thanks
ABRT would like to thank the Anne Arundel Parks & Rec South County maintenance team for their amazing support! Every year we have a hard time imagining the prospect of a field with 7’+ high brush transforming into the soft grass you experienced on Saturday, and every year that crew makes it come true. Additional thanks to AACO Parks & Rec Superintendent, Karen Jarboe, for her partnership. Bikes take a heavy toll on walking trails, so our use of the wooded section was a special treat. Thank you to Bob’s Red Mill for sponsoring the CX Sportif Series and MABRA for making sure that we had a fully loaded CX trailer (the tire was already like that when we got it). Thank you also to the amazing crew of USAC officials who all quietly shared the sentiment that they enjoyed the 10th edition of AACX more than the Maryland Cycling Classic. Finally, a very special thanks to Iain & Sarah over at Parvilla Cycles in Edgewater for providing the prize packages and generally herding the cats that go into putting on a race for 320+ riders. Miss you mate and wish you were able to be here to see it all come together.
