Cyclocross results, stories, adventures (and lies) go here

[Bruce K]

[Fixed]

I would be very interested in hearing about your training methods for cross
Are there practice courses around ?
How do you guys get ready for it. ?
Just wondering
Cheers

[Bruce K]

Here we ride two evenings and one weekend day on cross bikes

Mid-week one night is a mid-speed roll through the woods and paths at a local park. One night is local club practice on a "practice course". Barriers, run-ups, the whole bit. We also practice starts, cornering, and do Madison's (relay race sprints).

The weekend is a little bit of everything while riding 3 to 4 hours in a ramble format

BK

[rockdude]

I am putting on a training session once a week for my team. Its just skills training, barriers, cornering, off cambers, etc. BUT, if you want to be ready for cross you need to be doing really hard efforts for 20m to 30s. Cross is 100% from start to finish and you have to train for it. Threshold is the key to how fast you will go so it should be your base. Cross is on-off-on-off efforts so you need to do work similar to that also. I like sets of 20s on, 20s off for 10m. Or and hour at low threshold with all out burst every 1m-3m.

[Fixed]

Cool , it must really carry over to the road working on all that technique and speed work . sounds like a great way to learn new things and keep riding intresting .i can see why you guys love it
Cheers

[JStonebarger]

Originally Posted by Fixed

...i can see why you guys love it...

Um... don't forget the mud and the beer hand-ups...

[EDS]

Originally Posted by Bruce K

Here we ride two evenings and one weekend day on cross bikes

Mid-week one night is a mid-speed roll through the woods and paths at a local park. One night is local club practice on a "practice course". Barriers, run-ups, the whole bit. We also practice starts, cornering, and do Madison's (relay race sprints).

The weekend is a little bit of everything while riding 3 to 4 hours in a ramble format

BK

What park in Gloucester?

[Bruce K]

Actually we ride the trails behind Gordon College in Hamilton

Sometimes we'll ride at Bradley-Palmer State Park and on out into Willowdale

BK

[mtb_frk]

It doesn't sound too good for the USGP.

http://www.cyclingdirt.org/speaker/2...cross-Canceled

Hopefully they can pull something together.

[Bruce K]

That would be bad in so many ways.

The growth of cyclocross and the significant influx of pro teams was pretty much geared around the USGP. It was also probably the biggest way pro/elite racers earned their UCI points to qualify for the US team to go to the World Championships.

BK

[Fixed]

Anyone know if steephill has cross coverage ?
Thanks I would like to watch some races ,any good links you guys know of ?
Cheers

[redir]

We start our local cross practices next Tuesday. We have a full sized course course with practice barriers to play on and when it starts getting darker earlier there is enough light from the adjacent soccer and lacrosse fields for us to ride in the dark. It's a great set up and actually used as a cross race course in the Virginia series a few time. Cross racing under the lights is a trip.

I don't really train so much for cross specific skills training any more. I've been doing cross for over ten years now and worked my way up to cat 2 which is where I will stay for ever. My A race is masters now. I actually like to do a lot of mountain biking for cross training. Mountain riding in my terrain is like an interval work out with short bursts and short recoveries which is great for cross and also the rocks and roots you see on trails make the dirt/grass sections of a cross course look easy.

As for tires. Once I started on tubular I never looked back. It's not just flat protection, though I would argue that any clincher tire set up you can possible come up with, a tubular set up of similiar specs will run at lower pressure and have less flats. But it's also how they feel on the course and in corners which are critical. Most cyclocross races are won in the corners, that's where most people loose speed. A cross race is essentially a time trial, or at least a good way to think about it. Once the hole shot is selected and some fighting up front then it typically turns into a TT. So every second counts and tubular's corner better and faster than clinchers.

I like Tufo's because they don't have tubes in them in the traditional sense, the tube is glued to the inside of the tire.. Impossible to pinch flat. One of my back up tires is over 5 years old now and has never flatted.

The cool thing about clinchers is that for any given race you can make fast changes to suit race conditions. Put on your mud tires because it's raining or the file treads if the course is dry.

Of course I have 3 wheel sets, mud, dry, and in between.

[christian]

Doing my first CX race in 3 weeks - Westwood Velo CX in Harriman NY. Am running SS in a geared C field and my plan is to not come DFL.

[firerescuefin]

Originally Posted by christian

Doing my first CX race in 3 weeks - Westwood Velo CX in Harriman NY. Am running SS in a geared C field and my plan is to not come DFL.

Call Tanya Harding...heard she runs with some folks up that direction that can help you out.

[christian]

It's Tonya. We're tight.