Charm City Cross 2015 – UCI C2 Race Weekend – MAC Series Races #3 & #4

Druid Hill Park is a beautiful, historic 745 acre urban park established in 1859.

2015 will mark the 11th annual Charm City Cross and their Sixth year as a UCI sanctioned race. This is a Category 2 UCI and USA Cycling cyclocross event. The event will be held under UCI regulations and USA Cycling Permit # 2015-xxxx. UCI scale of penalties and USAC penalties will apply.

This is a traditional Charm City Cross course looping through historic DRUID HILL PARK.
-A Combination of pavement, flagstone walkway, grass, dirt, sand, and obstacles will be used.

Saturday course description
The course begins with a 250m slightly uphill paved road start with a wide, sweeping right turn onto a grass and dirt surface with no sharp turns and plenty of room for passing. To stretch the race out a bit after entering the grass a sweeping left turn will carry the race to the base of the paver climb to the Zoo Mansion House. You will descend a series of turns through the grassy meadow as riders make their way back to the treed gully before entering the first side of the pit. Upon exiting the pit, riders will climb to the second highest point of the course but not before ascending the Charm City steps on the way up.  To add to your enjoyment, you will descend back toward the pit and return to the second high point for a second time. Initiated by a sweeping right hand berm the gentlest part of the course winds toward a road crossing before heading up to the sand pits. Each of the four passes through the sand is ridable, but can become a short run. From there, riders enter a meandering downhill that leads to a short climb before hitting the pavement of the finish stretch. Past the finish riders make a large sweeping right hand turn that returns you to grass and brings you into the sharp right 90 prior to the set of planks beneath the announcer’s stage. Past the stage, riders make a left hand turn making their way around the ballfield to the flyover that will bring them back around to the second side of the pit. Upon leaving the pit for the second time, the course passes the team tents and the off camber hillside turns.  Following this section, riders return to the point they entered the course proper for another go at the short hill section.  The course is 2.8km in length not including the just under 0.5km prologue with several sections allowing recovery and as many as 4 dismounts per lap.  Note: Course description is subject to change and the sand section might be removed for the UCI elite races.

Sunday course description
The Sunday course starts and finishes the same as Saturday’s version. The switch is in a direction change to the race after the descent from the Zoo Mansion House. After exiting the pit the first time, you take the flyover to the back side sandpits and back through the finish. After the barriers and passing the announcing stage, riders go under the flyover returning to the reversed course. The course is 2.8km in length with several sections allowing recovery and has either 3 or 4 dismounts per lap.  Note: Course description is subject to change and the sand section might be removed for the UCI elite races.