I just got a pair of the pactimo alpine thermal tights without a chamois. I waited far too long to have something like that to warm up in. I have a couple pairs of their thermal bib tights for winter/cold weather riding. They are nice, but have the lower tier chamois that I don’t love.
Until it is in the mid to low 20s I can race in a regular skin suit. I wore my long sleeve skin suit in a rainy low 40s race last weekend and it was too warm for me.
Yeah I won’t race with anything on my legs unless it’s super cold like you mentioned.
Adam Myerson had great information on when to and course conditions (rain/snow) for leg warmers/bib tights. Basically if it’s raining, wearing leg warmers/tights is not ideal as you’ll be slogging around with wet/heavy leg warmers that’ll probably make you colder. Best to just not wear them for a 40-60min race when it’s wet.
Good call on the tights without chamois - I may look into that.
I like the information that Adam Myerson puts out. I’m looking for that information now.
He has some stuff on YouTube under the Cycle Smart channel.
My issue with tights over bibs is the tights can get caught when jumping back on the saddle so I always go leg warmers if it is that cold. For warmup I just wear sweat pants.
These are a splurge, but I’ve been very happy with them–my wife has a pair along with a jacket I got her when Lastig had their initial Kickstarter. Everyday Ziptights – LASTIG
Tights over bibs is just for warm ups. If it really is that cold, I have thermal bibs and full length thermal bib tights as well.
High 20s to mid 30s I use some embro on the knees. And consider a thermal top.
Duct tape over the vents on your shoes looks janky, but works in a pinch to keep the cold air out.
I nearly always over dress and suffer later in the race due to being too hot. Be bold, start cold. It took until my junior year of high school to realize how little I needed for XC ski racing. Only wore a hat for races sub 20. And worked my way down to thinner and thinner gloves as well. Freeze for the first 5 minutes was better than overheat for the last 5 to 10.
This has been super helpful for me dialing in my warmup, getting to the venue with more than enough time (though this calls for 4;30 am wakeup calls for me : / ), course inspection etc.
This is a good one, I listened to the whole podcast.
Last Saturday I did the North Hampton CX race.
That first race of the day was hard, 3:30 wake up for me.
Then getting to the race and it’s still dark, cold and windy, oh.
Once the race started it got nice out.
Fun race and next year I want to make a weekend out of it.
Adam, won his field that day.
Oh man I had a good one today.
Conditions I thought was perfect, rain the night before then 50 degrees at race start.
Ran some old Specialized Terra’s that I had in the basement, tires must be 8 or 9 years old. 
For me I really pushed it, tank was empty by the end of the race.
Course had a grinder of a climb that had the legs screaming but was able do it.
Now just two more races to go.
Really enjoyed that podcast, subscribed. Thanks for sharing.
Tyre pressure for CX question - I run a tubeless setup on my cross bike. The tyres are a very tight fit on the rim so not overly worried about burping but the last race I did I ran 25/27 psi and found I was bottoming out the tyre a couple of times per lap in a rooty section of the course. The rest of the lap was fine. Is this OK or should I up the pressure? I suppose it’s worth noting that not all courses we race on have tree roots or forest sections.
For a few roots you can just lighten or lift your bike like a mini bunny hop instead of hitting the roots hard. I’d select pressure based upon the majority of the course, or if there a difficult adverse camber you may want more grip.
Yeah I tried to be careful about where I was weighting/unweighting but in a couple of sections the roots were on an uphill that you arrived into at speed and it was tricky. Anyway, no punctures but an unpleasant feeling. I am reluctant to go any higher in pressure for the soft conditions we race in.
That’s a tough call. I had the same issue this weekend. I didn’t flat but kept worrying about it. Also was worrying about damaging the rim. Looking back I would have raised my pressure by 1psi to protect the rim and hope for similar grip.
If I don’t smack a rim once or twice a lap, I ran too much pressure is how I think about it.
I’ve flatted twice in cross races, sliced a sidewall on a rock and ripped my front tubeless tire off on a fast down then up corner that I sent it a little too hard down.
I run about the same on tubular tires, still don’t have to guts to go lower.
I try to ride cleans lines when I can and float over roots and rocks but still bottom out a few time during the race.
A bit less with wider rims but I feel that it’s normal.
The tires still pass the finger with body weight across the tires test.
Second to last race this past weekend and it was a hoot. Very slick with frost/dew melting off before and during our race. Finally had a great start and moved up 30 spots in about 20 seconds had me sitting top 5 for the first two laps. Amazing, but I knew I was writing checks I couldn’t cash. My goal was just to ride clean for the remaining three laps and push on the flats. That didn’t happen as I had a mishap in the sand being too close to a rider who fell and a lil crash on the last lap. 5-9th were all riding together and was fun and having some dynamics with the other age category mixed in with us and making passes to put the older category in between riders. Eventually rolled it in for 9th.
All in all it’s been a fun season back racing cx. My power numbers/pacing and skills have been great, but I know I could/should shed some weight (truth be told, I’m far from my race weight when I was over 4w/kg and you’d think I love drinking beer) to make things more interesting for next year.
Had my second to last race today and I wasn’t sure how I want to race this thing.
I know that my body is ready for a break so I didn’t think I had a super hard long effort in me.
I thought try and keep it zone 4 if possible and go from there.
Race was on wet grass and some mud, super fun.
At the end I never had such consistent lap times other than the traffic jam from the first lap.
I finished my cx season this past weekend and although I can’t make it to National’s this year, I can’t help but be happy with my year.
11 races
4 wins
3 more podiums
Cat 1 upgrade
But almost as fun as winning, I got my new custom painted Ridley X-Night RS a few months early and was able to race it this year. It’s such a great bike.
I’ve enjoyed keeping up with this thread this year and it’s been fun reading about everyone’s experiences. Congrats to everyone on their seasons and best of luck to those of you with races left. Can’t wait for next year. #cxiscoming
PS - Apologies for the gratuitous race pic but this bike is just so fun and fast
That bike is sweet 
. Love the touch the hubs gives it.
Congrats on a good season and the upgrade.
