That’s good to hear. I’m hoping that trend will continue
That’s rough. It seems very regionalized from the responses. Locally we almost had our Wednesday night cx series canceled but thankfully the organizers put together a subscription model with a financial target - the community came together pretty quickly to fund it. So hopefully cx will continue and grow here but we’ll see.
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First CX of the year was last night, 2 weeks in hawaii with no bike time there, then returning last saturday at noon was not optimal prep, lining up on the second row of the elite field was a poor choice and 90F heat was not handled well.
Still beat 1/4 of the field after pulling the pin 35 minutes in.
Not a fan of the 38mm terreno zeros, just no faith in them until they roll all the way over.
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This is my first season of cyclocross and I have heard of many people adding run and strength workouts into their weekly plan. What do you all do? Right now, LV and a skills workout is what I can consistently accomplish. Should I start to incorporate runs or strength workouts in the middle of race season, or work on that for next year?
For runs very short, like under a mile, slowly add cx specific intensity to those ie hill sprints, stairs, barriers etc. For strength work I’d focus on back and core workouts, mcgill crunches, bird dogs, planks etc and yoga. Recovery is key during the season and will set you back further than any fitness gained from intervals.
If you’re racing every weekend I don’t think I’d add any new training stimulus to the mix right now. Maybe if you have an off weekend do a short easy run and some pushups. I’ve been doing some runs and strength training weekly for two years now and my body is adapted to it. If you haven’t run in a while, you will notice your heart rate will seem really high for the effort.
Those are great ideas. Thank you. I am noticing the leg fatigue more and more especially with all of the VO2max workouts, so recovery is definitely becoming more of a priority
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Right now my races are every other weekend, but will then become every weekend in October. I will try some bodyweight exercises like push-ups and see how my body feels. Maybe a short run if I must lol
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Rochester CX weekend. I raced the 4/5 bright and early at 8:40AM. Course was wet and slick with the morning dew. Di2 went haywire and I started the start sprint finding out that the rear derailleur wouldn’t shift, so I was effectively racing single speed. Hit 159 for a max cadence. Forced me to conserve momentum but really limited my power output on the fast flat areas because of the gear I got stuck in. Ended up 10th out of 40. I think the SS smoothed out my power a bit as well; 277 NP, 231 Avg P.
Day 2 went a little better. Got rain at the start and throughout the race so it was a completely different course than the day before, plus half was ridden in the opposite direction. Slightly more rideable in this direction even in the mud. But the mud changed a usually rideable uphill into a slippy, slidy mess. Could have used the toe spikes. Crashed a couple times and broke a BOA on my shoe so the run up was interesting. But I was able to fix my Di2 issue (bad cable) so I could shift again. Finished 8th out of 30 so slightly better result but didn’t feel as good as the day prior, power was down as well. 257 NP, 205 avg P. I think my recovery after day 1 could have been better, but I wanted to hang out and watch the pro races so was on my feet more than usual.
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Looking like Charm City could be mud fest, thanks to Hurricane Ian. Will be interesting to see how this goes!
Interestingly, Ive head a ton of people having Di2 issues this season! My buddy was so stoked that he was finally able to bunny hop the barriers, only to find out that the not so delicate landing appeared to put him into crash mode. Was able to sort it out but odd to say the least!
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The first lap, most of us did that accidentally/unable to run down because it was SO slick, so from there on we just decided it was more efficient to just go for the slide. 
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Nice work!! This is a great start to the season for sure! 
& thanks for the cheers!
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I’m curious how people deal with expectations and call ups. I’m relatively new and do cross mostly for fun after a long gravel season, but I enjoy the idea of trying to at least be competitive in the Cat 4 races I do.
However, due to other commitments I can only do a few races a season so my call up is usually near the back of the pack. I find I’m able to move up pretty well during the race and am limited by fitness and skills after a certain amount of the race, but it also doesn’t really feel possible to get to the front of the race when starting so far back.
Do I need to go out harder at the start to try and get around more people before the traffic jams start and just risk blowing up? Just deal with it and enjoy the races for what they are?
How deep are your callup rows? If you’re 2/3rd row, just line up behind someone you know who’s going to get the holeshot. Yes go deeper than you think during the sprint but also be efficient at it, as a fellow cat 4 thats usually 800w peak of my normal 1200w peak. Get clipped in and have your gearing and shifting dialed so you don’t get bogged down behind others and be ready to quickly surface past people during that start.
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I have a gravel bike, and want to do a couple of local cx races in the Sacramento area in November/December. I understand the courses have grass (and it’ll probably be wet and a little muddy, but probably nothing crazy). My tires for gravel have no grip, so I’m thinking a set of tires for cross is in order.
- For a few casual races like this, do I go “cross” width in the 34 or 35mm range, or as my bike can take wider, should I be running 40+? Any particular tires to consider? Tubeless clincher would be most likely, and running on about 20mm internal width 700c rims.
Thanks
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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