First lap I went from 20th to 60th on that hill - and I'm a good climber. What happened was a couple of teammates and I tried to gutter the pack in a crosswind a couple of miles previously. It was the only coherent attack of the race - we were bored. Didn't work out, the massed Chicago teams with 3 letters decided to actually do some work to stop us. Anyway, I didn't recover in time and fell behind when the hammer dropped through town.

My buddy attacked about a mile before the hill on the 2nd lap. He went from 1st to 40th on that hill.

The hill was basically a sprint. The only hard effort of the first lap for 90% of riders. Easy to do if you're happy to sit in.

For the 4's it's going to be a longer race and the extra miles will sap the legs of quite a few people. There are a couple of riders registered who are cat 1 CXers, they'll be able to ride OTF at will. Should be interesting.

For the masters and cat 3s it'll be shorter than last year. Expect more intensity. For all - things will get insane on the 2 miles through town, do everything you can not to get dropped. Be especially careful of the downhill out of town. If a gap forms, and there's a headwind, you'll be dropped on the uphill afterwards. Bitter experience speaking.

There'll probably be some neutral volunteers handing out water on the feed hill. Grab some if you need it. Otherwise, try to arrange with some team members who have SOs there to give hand ups to you as well.