Cyclocross Comes To West Bend!

Well, cyclocross practice comes to West Bend, starting at 5:30 p.m. next Tuesday, Aug. 14, at Royal Oaks Park, 1000 Auburn Road.  A few of the boys got together this evening and worked out two 1-mile options.  With a couple of strategically-placed PVC barriers and a few cones and flags to weave around, Royal Oaks is going to be a great practice venue.

In the photos below, the red marker indicates the start/finish.  We envision the course running counter-clockwise from that point, but it could be reversed for variety.  The white square shows the point at which the two course options diverge.

Option 1 takes a hard left turn and the trail climbs to the northeast before another left turn takes the riders to the top of the sledding hill:

Option 2 continues down to the base of the hill, then traverses the bottom, then turns left to climb a tricky little piece of singletrack that for some riders might turn into a run-up before things level out a little:

There’s a short section on which there will be two-way traffic, but the trail is 10-12 feet wide and will easily accommodate riders traveling on opposite sides of the safety cones we will deploy.  The course enters the woods on a short-but-testing asphalt trail, then turns left abruptly onto a wood-chipped trail.  These trails get few visitors on a typical Tuesday evening, but we will have to be on guard for other users.  Out in the open the sight lines are very good and there should be no conflicts.

Join me next Tuesday and let’s see how this works with a group.  We will continue to look for ways to improve the course but I think these two options—which may turn into Lap 1 and Lap 2 when we do a race simulation—give us a great starting point.  If next week's practice session is a success, then we'll keep the party going every Tuesday until waning daylight gets us in late September or early October.