I did a few cross races last year and really enjoyed them but damn they are hard to be competitive in. In CX theres like 40 and i’d be bottom 10 for sure where mtb theres more riders of similar speed.
I dont know how youd go about attracting more novice riders but probably starts with the courses being more interesting
My other beef with CX is that when you look at some euro and US races the races look preety good, sand, barriers, some running etc
some of the races i’ve done down south have had zero sand, zero barriers, zero running, and mostly around fields
I’ll be trying to not come last again this year though, great workout