I got my legs ripped off my a 13 year old, and I never want that to happen again, so yes I’m hooked haha.
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Well that kid will be in the 4’s and probably 3’s before too long, he won on Saturday as well. Every year there’s a couple of guys who just dominate their way through. Also, in case you didn’t know, you can upgrade to 4 after completing 5 races in CX in our region. They (generally) put the 5’s in the crappiest time slots so being a 4 provides a little better choice of time.
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well first I have to figure out bunny hopping lol
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Seriously…bunny hopping is over rated. Focus on getting off and on your bike quick, and just run them. If you’re good a bunny hops, by all means, hop them, but otherwise running is faster and safer.
Nearly none of the pro, world-class, women hop, and all of them would smoke you in a race.
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Any tire recommendations with a ton of grip for a Cat 5 who wants to feel as secure as possible on two tires?
Looking at the Challenge Grifo TLR
That’s a good one, along with Donnelly PDX/MXP, Michelin Super Mud, etc.
But if you are really looking for confidence, I think you should also think about width. Having a wider rim/tire combo will really improve confidence and speed in most cases. I use a 23mm inner width rim, and my tires (that say 33mm on the sidewall) usually measure 36-37mm. If a wider rim isn’t an option, look into a 40+mm gravel tire. They are a little heavier, but will do wonders for grip/traction.
Does anyone run powertap wheels on their 'cross bike? I hate that I’ve got no data after a race (except HR and dodgy GPS based speed). There are a few cheap Powertap wheels around, and they are probably only slightly heavier than my current wheels.
Post ride working out what I’m doing wrong! 
The only time I look at my headunit in a race is when I’m working out how much longer the suffering will last! 
I’ve been using my powertap with my CX bike these past 2 years. It’s fun looking at data after the fact. For example, yesterday’s race featured a straight slightly uphill fire road, where I averaged mid 260’s and got about 1:20ish, the winner did it in in the low 1min range. With a little more effort there (my threshold is somewhere in the 295-310, not totally sure these days lol) I might have been able to cut some time off myself .
Although I’ve only been using my timer screen on the garmin and not watching power, there are some times when it would do me some good to glance down and realize I’m slacking.
I run a quarq on my CX bike. Love it.
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Maybe your courses are different, but here in the UK bunny hopping really isn’t the most important skill to learn. As cool as it is!
not so much for analyzing data from the race. It’s nice to look at how hard the start was and maybe how I’ve been preforming over the course of a season race by race. Am I able to go way above threshold more often and longer? Or Probably more important to me is that this time of year i switch to riding my CX bike 100% of the time. All outside/indoor interval training, mock CX practice/race starts, or the long Sunday ride is done on my CX bike. The PM allows me to follow structured training on the same bike that I am racing with.
That’s not really a hop though, it’s more unweighting one wheel at a time. But agree its important to be able to do that in that situation.
It just winds me up when beginners are immediatly being told “learn to bunny hop”. I think its just way more important to be able to dismount and remount, run with the bike, ride steep banks up and down, ride off camber, ride mud, and of course cornering, cornering, cornering. All happen more often and getting them wrong will cost you more time than not being able to hop the barriers.
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Not sure who else is still living the canti life, but I finally replaced the stock pads on my tektro brakes with koolstop salmon pads. might be placebo or maybe I lucked out with getting the brakes dialed but I feel good about the braking
They still make cantis?
Ran cantis till this year. Mostly because I had numerous sets of tubulars with different tires on for certain conditions. And they were light and cheap. Switching to disc and am excited. Bike is heavier, but it’ll be fine.
There are loads of nice cheap secondhand bikes with cantis (and lots of cheap wheels around too). I don’t think anyone will be buying new bikes with cantis, but I suspect they will hang around in the secondhand market for a while.
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Speaking of bikes…
My girlfriend is going to race my Stigmata since I’m injured but when I come back, we will need a second bike, damn near identical measurements. Is there a cheap Al or steel bike out there with provisions for Di2, internal cable and hoses, 12/12 axles, direct mount brakes, which is not a gravel bike? We would each use the other bike as a B-bike if we ever make it to a competitive stature. I think Felt is the only one currently.
The AL Canyon Inflite. Although I’m not sure on the Di2.
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Norco Threshold. That’s what my wife rides. Can’t comment on Di2.
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