Sharp images. Thanks for coming out to take pictures of a bunch of skinny dorks in tights.
Cross may not be my thing, but taking pictures of cross is 100 times more fun than sitting in the woods by myself getting bit by mosquitoes. It's a much bigger challenge, I generally can control my little area really well with mountain bikes, pick a pinch point, a canopy of trees, it's pretty well under control. Out in a field it's hard, the sun is HARSH, I can't compensate with my own lighting, no matter how much I think I have a spot where I know everyone is going to go, 50% of the field takes completely the wrong line. Practice is way better than race day for me. If I screw you guys up on practice day you don't even think about it. On race day, it's a 45 minute death match. If I F you up for 2 seconds it's a big F'ng deal. Much less so on MTB race day since it's 2+ hours with way less speed to carry. so I have to absolutely be out of the way physically and try and not distract mentally.
This week came out way better than last week. Last week there was some clouds, and when the light went flat, it was still too bright to get creative with my flashes in an open field. So flat lighting in the wide open, everything just kinda looked like a cell phone picture. boring.
I've said it before, and you were explaining last night to the class and gave a tutorial on it... if you want to race cross, you need to learn to pick lines. And not just the one right in front of you. The exit line is 3 times as important as the entry line if there is another turn coming. My feeble cross observation is that linking up turns is where the most time is lost to the mid pack racers. Barriers, mount, dismount, whatever isn't nearly as much lost time as completely blowing linking up 2 or 3 consecutive turns PLUS it takes away your valuable energy.
And you can practice this sitting on your couch. It's not as much of a physical skill as it is a mental one.
Grab a copy of Gran Turismo, even an old one like GT4 that will probably play on a cell phone now. Just something with a properly functioning physics engine. Play a honda fit or a miata or something with no power, a tight track, and observe how poorly our judgment is initially on picking lines and what those consequences are when the next turn comes and you aren't set up for it. Learn the consequences of late braking someone to get past them, yeah you can late brake them, gain the position, burn your energy sprinting back up to speed, and the 3rd place guy just cruises by the both of you. whoops.
It's just geometry, some physics, and burning that all into the brain and it'll come right out on race day. Conserve speed, conserve energy. Keep the average radius of all your turns as big as physically possible. Experience will eventually teach how to deal with the physical ground surface and throw that in the equation of line picking, but the basics can be taught really damn well with video games. I think anyway.
