Vance Russell
Don’t tell anyone but racing cyclocross is a lot more fun than mountain bike races. Why? First, the races have a friendly mixture of road and mountain bike racers and have the feeling of doing something slightly subversive-just a little different. Since the courses are short, there is plenty of cheering. Unlike mountain biking, they are cheap, $15/race on race day and you actually have the chance of taking home some prizes. And where else in December can you go out a bust a lung for 30-60 minutes.
Cyclocross is a little known type of bike racing combining elements of mountain biking and running on a short circuit course. All courses feature mandatory dismount sections (usually a hill/stairs too steep to ride up or wooden planks perpendicular to the ground). Courses are generally in parks and have grass, singletrack and road sections. Races are divided into A, B and C categories, A being the most difficult and with the best riders. Riders are allowed to change bikes, if necessary, e.g., if the course is very muddy. The sport is hugely popular in Europe and gaining popularity in the US as audiences enjoy seeing the riders go by many times. The season is short, but usually practiced in brutal weather conditions (except in California. The US nationals this year, for example were in Kansas with temperatures in the teens and snow on the ground.
No ‘cross bike? Don’t worry, you can ride your mountain bike with no bar ends and some of the courses even give an advantage to people on mountain bikes with narrower tires and semi-slicks. Or have even more fun cobbling together a bike with an old steel frame and all of those road and mountain parts lying around your garage. The typical ‘cross bike is a road bike with drop bars and a raised stem. Most riders will pick a slightly smaller frame than their road bike.
I did two races this year and had a great time. I went with a number of DBC race team members who competed in the 30 minute C race in the first of a series of races in Sacramento and Folsom. After placing 6 guys in the top 10 we moved up to the B category in the next race. The course changed each race. Whereas the first course was less technical and had a relatively long road section, the second race (last in the series) was much more technical, featuring more singletrack and off camber sections and less flat sections where a ‘cross bike would excel. This was fun, since sections you would blow through on a mountain bike were much more delicate on the narrower wheels and different frame of a ‘cross bike.
I found that the continual mounting and dismounting to be the most challenging aspect of both races. Remounting your bike while tired makes a difference in how you place. Basically you need to dismount well before a barrier. Most “advanced” races put their right leg inside the left while still clipped in and jump to the ground with the right leg on the left side of the bike to allow for less hopping. After crossing the barrier (pick the bike up by the top tube if barriers, pick it up by the downtube and transfer to your shoulders for long uphills) you need to gracefully remount your bike while running and not rack yourself. I suggest digging that old baseball cup out of your neglected sports closet. No, the key is to throw your right leg over the saddle landing on the inner thigh. At one point in the race, in oxygen debt I missed my saddle, nearly doing some serious damage. I knew it was bad when I heard a couple of spectators wince loudly!
Anyway, the B race was 45 minutes and actually about the same intensity as the C race. Only one of us endo’d and I narrowly missed tripping over a barrier once when almost failing to unclip. Time mountainbike pedals are especially useful for cross as your cleats get very muddy. SPD’s are useless, even in dry conditions. I found the competition to be especially fun as I was dueling with two guys the whole race while we fought for second. Here is where doing the barriers flawlessly was important as I did lose ground a couple of times not negotiating them correctly, but then again, gained ground when doing them well. It was especially fun to line up at the start with five guys from DBC and I look forward to doing more races. If you road or mountain bike, I would highly recommend a trying next year. It will be a nice change from that loop you’ve been doing around Cantelow on the weekends!