Get this or something like it in the normal 33 width. I use those all cross season in all conditions, don’t want to bother changing tires. Wider will be worse for multiple reasons.
Race report and video from Wisconsin Englewood: Did a 10/33 in cat 3 with a great effort after a bad start. Upgraded category this year so started back a ways in the 3rd row and this course narrowed up quick.
I got the best number for this season is all that really matters. Going to have to go to more races than I had planned on due to that.
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Anyone else confused by the newest podcast ep 382 that starts with a part about power meters not useful for cross? The comments were:
1)that with 2 bikes you can’t switch between power meters
2)thats power/IF is usually lower in cross races not reflecting how hard it is
Most amateurs use only one bike and I’ve never had an issue keeping my np above threshold (until I blow up). Cross is the highest normalized power I do in any racing/training. I agree can’t look at much detail during a race but seeing IF/np later in a race can help you realize you can go harder or going too hard.
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I’ve got my PM on the cross bike for the early races, but I find the data pretty useless. Lots of very short spikes with no pedalling in between. The longest and hardest effort is typically the start, and even that is rarely 30s.
It will depend on the course though. The more technical the course, the less useful the data imo.
I didn’t listen to the podcast, but was wondering if low power stats (NP, AP, IF) were normal, so I’m glad they seem to think they are!
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I have a PM on my cross bike but that’s because I also ride it on gravel rides. I can’t say I’ve ever looked at power data during a race. I took off HR data from my view recently as well because it would psych me out sometimes. Now I just have elapsed time and previous lap. And even after the race I don’t think I get much out of analyzing power data. I may look at it for a minute or so and check out the start and first couple minutes and kind of gauge how hard I went and whether my in-race perception fit that. What I mean by that is I might think back to the race and and say, I think I faded at the end so I’d see if I went out way too hard or something. But I’d say I spend less than 2-3 minutes looking at the power data from CX compared to using it quite a bit on the road. Definitely don’t think I’d be missing out on much if I didn’t have one.
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I find it useful when not with a group, in that case you’re trying to catch the next group or stay ahead of those behind you. I agree that NP is its own thing, maybe the courses in Iowa, Wisconsin, IL are more open than other places, or maybe I’m better at doing short intense efforts than I am at threshold, I never have an issue pushing the NP for a race as high as I am able to and can easily go too hard for the medium length 45 minute cat 3 races. For example I just did a race where I was at 1.10 IF for the first 10 minutes, I know based on previous recent races that I can’t maintain that IF for 45 minutes so I was able to tone it down gradually and end just under 1.0 IF. Without that information at the 10 minute mark I possibly would have kept going too hard and blown up midway through or thought I was way over my limit and eased off the power too much. And the argument can be made that you should be able to know all this without a power number but that is still harder to judge your RPE. Two sources of info from power meter and RPE seems better than RPE only.
I also have PM on cross bike and have same experience as you- my IF is quite high and I was also confused by what Nate and Jon were saying on this. I do not use it during race (no chance) and I am still figuring out how to best sort data but think there is useful information there beyond it being “spiky”. Of course you can find cx power analysis online (Cusick has a video on this) but useful to look at your own data here as styles and courses differ.
I’ll be doing those races as well and have done the Sac CX series for several years now. 33 is definitely best as most of the courses feature a heavy amount of grass. I’ll start the season with a similar tire to the Maxxis All Terrane mentioned earlier.
That said last year I put on an IRC Slopchop 33 for a very muddy/wet race 2 and ended up leaving them on the rest of the season as after that big Oct storm all the venues were mixes of grass and mud. Ended up really liking the extra grip a tire like that offered.
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Ordered the Maxxis, thanks.
In a larger race, that would be my approach - go hard from the start to avoid the mess, it will pay off quickly. I race A and my fields locally are only 15-20 people, so I have far less of a need to go 200% at the start. It is still a hard start, but I know I’ll end up mid-pack anyway, no use blowing up or unnecessarily slowing down the top 5 guys.
I’m the opposite, I’ve now run a PM for two races (65-67 mins) and my NP was 205-210W. where my 60-70min PR is 260W (average). I can confidently say I had very little left at the end of the race though, I felt like dying and set 20 and 60 minute HR PRs in both races 
My all-time HR PR was 175bpm, went to 176 for first race and 179 for second race. Ouch …
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Sprinting for next to last place! Whoo hoo! I’m sure that if I had a power meter on my bike it would have just said “PEDAL HARDER!”
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Cross race in numbers. I did a 40minute very technical (many turns) race with one dismount spot. Here’s the breakdown (ftp 355).
7/40minutes ‘coasting’ (0 watts). IF 1.15, cadence avg 69. Certainly a unique race format!
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Similar spread across the power zones (albeit much lower absolute numbers), but heart rate pegged for 50 mins with an avg of 158bpm vs threshold of 154bpm!
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At least you got 0.3% HR recovery! Lol
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I have a power meter on my cross bike - I put my computer in my pocket or run my watch though.
I never ever look at the info while out there and make decisions based on RPE and positioning.
I however always want a Power Meter and HR strap so that I can capture proper effort for the day for recovery or training in the future.
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My mudder tire of choice for SURE. So dang good!
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Yesterday’s GCN Show had a clip from CX Rochester featuring none other than TrainerRoad’s @IvyAudrain (along with the rest of the women’s field) desperately struggling to get up a muddy hill.
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Slop chops are dope! Can usually get them around $50/tire… until this year. Those may very well be a good option this weekend in Baltimore, although I already have PDX mounted so will see how those do!
Those maxxis tires like like a 33mm DHR2!
My intervals data for last race.
Power:
HR - where do you guys recover??? I’m not sure if out of box HR zones are correct, but my max-HR definitely is. I have hit 193 a few times but never higher.
Race details:
This is an A race. 10 laps, 1:05:19 for me, 9th out of 15, 4:17 back from 1st place. My lap times were relatively steady and without a major mid-race drop, which is my goal:
6:28.4
6:27.0
6:31.9
6:33.2
6:35.3
6:30.8
6:39.2
6:34.9
6:27.6
If anyone wants to watch me suffer for over an hour, here you go: Menno Cross 2022 (A Race) - YouTube
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