To anyone doing Jackson Park. Some experiences from last year:

Surprisingly non-aggressive start. Lots of newbies. No problem to elbow your way to the front if that's your thing. A good start is always important but not quite as important here as other races.

Couple of very rough ruts - chain drop could be an issue. make sure you have those chainkeepers, derailleurs in order.

Fast course. 1st half quite technical - well designed - 3 sets of barriers, pinwheel, off-camber, chicanes etc. Watch out for transitions to/from pavement. Saw a couple of people bite it on these - not pleasant. Might be an idea to keep just a couple of yards off the wheel of the guy in front of you. First race of the year and many people are going to mess up the off-camber and other technical obstacles.

You'll need a lower gear than you might expect, some slow transitions to some short steeps. Remember to downshift in advance.

2nd half was very fast. Punch it for all you're worth. Plenty of time to recover later. Lots of people will run out of gas on the last lap. Give it everything with 5 minutes to go and catch all those dozy riders. Caught 3 people at the line last year who were just rolling in all casual-like. Maybe a dozen overall on the last lap.

That said, there is supposed to be a surprise obstacle and I expect that they will put something in to break up the second half of the course and slow people down a bit.

Most important: enjoy