That’s how Dutch junior Lars van der Haar described the course for today’s world cyclo-cross championships. “It’s not cyclo-cross,” said Van der Haar in a post-race chat with VeloNews‘ Charles Pelkey. “Cyclo-cross takes much more than just a fast start. Barriers, mud, more than one run-up … that’s cyclo-cross.”
Got to concur, Lars. I think ‘cross has become a good deal less interesting since the UCI began restricting a promoter’s natural urge to inflict pain and suffering on his customers. Flyovers and beer tents are all very well and good, but l like insane shit like long, gooey run-ups and multiple dismounts to showcase the riders’ skills at getting on and off the bike.
Chris Grealish was the master of that sort of Colorado course design back in the day, when I still raced. I remember courses at Chatfield State Park that included creek crossings, slaloms through the aspens and muddy run-ups so steep that a guy practically had to toss his bike over the top and climb up after it. Snow was good because it covered the goat-heads.
At one race the dump was so deep that the promoter shoveled a short section for a start-finish area, ordered a LeMans-style start with bikes stuffed into a ragged line in the snow, and sent us off for a couple painful laps of mostly running. I think I got second that time, behind the long-legged Mark Lance; it was one of my few respectable results from that time.
In fact, barring 1999, my one solid season, if the course didn’t call for a ton of running, I’d never see the front of the race until the leaders lapped me. So you’ll understand why I like it dirty. No goo, no glory.
Mad Blog Media 
I also have many found memories of the Chatfield cross races even if they sometimes fell into the insanity category. I still often think of that race in the snow with the LeMans start. My least favorite there was running a quarter mile on the sandy beach with hidden grapefruit sized rocks hitting me in the shins. I didn’t like running and I really didn’t like extra abuse while I was running.
Agree that Grealish did some fun races back in the day, but I think of the Western Mobile site not Chatfield. Most of the Chatfield races were LW’s fault. I remember one long beach run that led to a long bluff run-up that was especially heinous. Patrick should write a book about Masters Cross Racing in CO. I’d buy a copy.
Here’s a Western Mobile Pic we like:
http://fischer-wade.net/Cyclocross%20Racing/album/slides/lisa_cx.html
I missed the women’s race on payup.tv, but the men’s race was silly. It looked more like a technical time trial than a cross race. My wife watched for a few minutes and exclaimed, “that’s not a cross race, that’s a road race.” And her experience in cross is from watching me race for a few minutes at a park near our house. But, it would have been different if the temps were higher and if it had rained within the last two months.
Ah, yes, the infamous beach run. Having weak and damaged ankles unsuited to sand-running, I remember that one too. In fact, the picture on this post is from that course, just at the top of the run back up from the beach.
Lee W. took over from Chris G. at Chatfield, IIRC. When I moved back to Colorado from New Mexico in 1991, Chris was doing races at the Elks Club in Boulder and a couple other places. His Chatfield courses were all at the balloon-launch area on the west side of the park. After while Lee started running races there, and then for some reason (the insistence of park management, I suspect) he shifted to the east side, which was a good deal less interesting and had even more goat-heads than the original site. In fact, it was the course that sent me back to clinchers. Replacing a set of sewups once a week got prohibitively expensive.
I thought that Western Mobile site was a giggle. Who else but Grealish would come up with something like that, turning giant piles of dirt into obstacles? I never rode well there, but I had to appreciate his ingenuity. But my favorite course was that horse park near Franktown. I don’t remember who was responsible for that one, but it was killer.