A good shorttrack course should allow for passing at any point of the course.
Along the back it gets a bit dicey, and while you can go two wide, the natural occurrence is the field files in to a single file.
- The first year (2008) they ran the XCC (as part of the GMBC Winter Series), we went down the path towards where we started, and left in to the singletrack (which was more direct at the time). While it was a tactical race (which I won in B) and awesome course, it prevented any passing for a good part of the race.
- The second year (2009) it went down past where we went this year, and in to the end of Boulder. That meant we went over the boardwalk, mostly single file (back then, you could go down off the boardwalk and bunnyhop back up). Again it was close, but it meant a train leading in to the finish line - I finished third in B (I think?), where it was just too difficult to get alongside between the corner exit and the finish - the race was over when we went in to the singletrack on the last lap.
- The following year (2010) we went down the hill in to the quarry with the course as a hotdog. I can't remember where the course went that year, but I got pulled as the B grade race split in to little bunches early on - that was a pretty open course which I think only went down as far as that tree you had to duck under at the hairpin.
- 2011 was pretty much the same as the 2010 National Series crit course - so we could use the same shortcuts/tricks as an A/B line, and was a lot of fun. However it was about as open as you can get, which is ideal for an XCC course.
This year was a lot shorter a course. It was great that it was open as it was, you wouldn't want an XCC/STXC race to have any more 'single' track or similar than what it did. Courses like Glenorchy while yeah, they're great fun with a massive climb in the XCC, string the field out too much because of the way you really have to go single file downhill through the berms and through the forest section.
Illinbah had a great XCC course for the most - a grass field. But it was ruined by a short singletrack section that forced you in single-file.
As much as you might like riding technical trail, Moorey, XCC is not the place for it. XCC is short, fast, tactical bunch racing. Sure, have an A line where you have to huck a rock; but it needs to be able to be ridden in a bunch with drafting and overtaking. That's what the format is about - tactics, speed and sprint finishes. It is in fact the point that an unfit, good technical rider should do poorly in it - complete the opposite to how a fit, unskilled rider would do poorly in DH.
There's nothing wrong with a course where there needs to be accelerations out of corners. Just so long as you can go through that corner 2, 3 wide.
