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Cyclocross

S

Speedcrazy

trackside tech
Joined
Aug 15, 2006
Location
San Jose
Moto(s)
RD350
Does anyone in here race cyclocross? If so, are you going to the race in Santa Rosa this weekend? This will be my first cross race, so I'm looking for some info on what to expect.

Thanks,
Brett
 
I used to do it when I was road racing bicycles. Will you be using a cross bike or a mountain bike? Try and figure out before the race where you will need to run and carry like logs and such. Sometimes there are short steep hills that you can carry faster than ride too. There will be areas where you will have to carry your bike, the smoother you can make the transitions the better. Try to pace yourself, cyclocross is a good workout, and different than just cycling, go out a bit slower than you might think is correct, after a couple laps you can probably determine what kind of pace you can maintain. good Luck and have fun!!
 
every course is different, so as far as what to expect, I would just expect really tough competitors...

in general, rubbing elbows is fun at the start and on the first lap and the bike you ride won't make a big difference your first time out, unless it's a beach cruiser or something ungainly and heavy

also, arrive a little bit early, so you can pre run the course

lastly, practice your rolling dismounts and mounts as a lot of time can be lost there...
 
How it will strike you will probably depend on what kind of riding you normally do.

I'd always been primarily a road biker, so the offroading threw me off the first time out, but I never ran out of legs or lungs. I talked to a dude there who was primarily a singletrack mountain biker, and he found the offroad to be lightweight but had a hard time keeping up on the straights.

But as mentioned, every course is different - some have more pavement, some less. Pre-running the course will help you a lot!

I've done only a few races, but in every one I've been in, there are a lot of crashes at the first transition from onroad to off. You can make time there (and in a lot of other places) by thinking outside of the box and taking alternate lines. Ruts form quickly.

I found a delightful synchrony in cyclocross, offroad, and supermoto. The lessons I learned in any one of the above helped me immensely in all three.
 
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the first turn thing is an excellent point....in your pre runs, you should look for the 'popular' line and then look for and try the fastest alternate line or lines, cause there will likely be crashes in the first turn...
 
I've done the Santa Rosa cross series a couple times. It was years ago though so the course has probably changed. From what I remember the start was a 100 yard up hill with hay bails. Really wide open so there's plenty of room to get sorted out as you climb. None of the hills were really that big but there wasn't much rest either.

Best advice I would suggest is get a really good warm up. Be sweating when you are on the line because the first few minutes are pretty fast while people fight for position. You don't want to be winded right from the get go and never really ride to your potential. Then once the course gets to a good single file position, pace yourself. There will be plenty of time to overtake the guys that are fading and since there isn't much drafting to be had in cyclocross, you'd be better off to treat it like a time trial. In other words hold as high of a pace as you can for the duration of the race. That includes (as I already said) not going out so hard in the first 5 min. that you are so fried that you can't really get up to your max output.

Good luck, have fun. As said above, smooth transitions really make a good cyclocross racer. Lot's of guys spend years perfecting their transitions to make them smooth and not waste energy. You'll be surprised at how fast your heart rate will skyrocket after only a few transitions. That's where pacing yourself comes in.
 
Thanks for all the great info. Since this is my first race, and I'm only barely in shape, my goals are simple:

1) Complete entire race
2) Finish anywhere other than last

I've read everything I can find about CX and watched a ton of race videos on YouTube, so I think I'm ready to take a stab at it. If it all goes terribly (or even if it goes well), I'll just have a beer and watch for the rest of the day

Thanks again,
Brett
 
Speedcrazy said:
my goals are simple:

1) Complete entire race
2) Finish anywhere other than last
Click to expand...

When you register for the race check the rules or ask one of the organizers if they are going to pull lappers from the race. Might be good to know whether you are going to get the hook if you get lapped by the leaders. I'm sure it depends on field size and how big the course is. They may announce it on the line but it couldn't hurt to ask. They may already know based on how many sign ups they have. This could seriously hamper your ability to finish the race if you are out of shape. Good luck!
 
Thanks again for all the advice. I had a great day and a great race. I warmed up for about an hour by riding the course, and that definitely helped. I had a solid mid-pack finish, and I'm sure I could have pushed harder, but I wasn't sure how to pace myself correctly for the race. I bicycle and swim daily, so I'm not really in as poor shape as I had joked. The bottom line is that I'm totally hooked now and I'm sure I'll do more in the fall. Even though it's so much slower that motorcycle racing, I definitely could see some parallels as I did it. So again, thanks all for you input.
 
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