Mastering Cyclocross: Unveiling the Secret Sauce to Skillful Racing and Endless Fun
CYCLOCROSS SKILLS
Cyclocross skills are the secret sauce to enjoying cross.
Not feeling intimidated every time you have to dismount/remount, run through double or triple barriers, hit the ground running up that steep, slippery runups, is what makes cross fun.
w211ff21`Races are won or lost because of cross-specific skills, so feeling accomplished at them will increase your racing efficiency. And fun…don’t forget the fun!
Where to learn these weird skills. Find a cross clinic near you! And get recommendations from teammates and friends who race. Not all cross clinics are created equal, so getting recommendations from people you trust is your best bet on learning the fundamentals from a good clinic.
It’s pretty simple – PRACTICE!
Practice a couple of times a week, or practice one skill a day. Whatever works best for you, just practice! And the key to good practice is to STOP when your skills start becoming sloppy. You only want to reinforce good form; not practice until your form breaks down.
And just a quick warning…you will have bruises in the weirdest places when you race cross.
It just makes you cool. Own your well earned bruises!
RUNNING
“But I hate running”
“I suck at running”
“Why is running so important that I need to start doing it?”
I’ve asked myself these questions and the answer is always, “Because you want to do well this cross season.” It ends up being okay because it’s not having to run long distances, but rather short distances with intensity built in. We can all run for 30 minutes, right?
I like to start off easy, getting my joints, tendons and ligaments adapted to the challenge. Then I will add stairs. Stairs are so important to help strengthen our muscles, tendons and ligaments to create that boost of power/energy to run up those stairs! This will definitely get your heartrate up, which is another great benefit.
I also like to add short, fast runs uphill. The foot speed needed to be good at runups can be trained with practice running up hills. Shouldering a bike is a great add on. Running uphill pushing your bike is also good practice.
Why is foot speed so important?
Watch a pro cyclocross race and you will see beautiful smooth, fast foot speed going into the barriers, runups, stairs – whatever the course builders throw at them. The ability to take small, fast steps makes you a much more efficient cross racer! Getting through the barriers, up that runup, dismounting/remounting requires fast feet. Seconds can be saved by fast foot speed. Seconds win races!
RACE DAY
How to get over the fear of that first race… I remember not knowing how to do any of the cross-specific skills and riding my hardtail mountain bike in my first cyclocross race. I was fortunate in that I had other cross-curious friends who also thought it would be fun to try the sport out and the next thing you know, we’re out there floundering around having a great time!
The key to trying anything new and “scary” is to cut yourself some slack. Don’t expect to be perfect, don’t expect to finish well - be in the moment and congratulate yourself for showing up and trying “the thing.” There’s no room for perfection when you’re trying a new “thing.”
Do it, have a blast, feel the burn, and keep coming back!
Properly preparing for race day assures you can fall in love with the sport. I’ve done it the wrong way, so let’s just start there!
I didn’t have a coach, I didn’t know how to warm up, I didn’t know how to eat and hydrate properly and I didn’t know when I was tired and needed to stop racing and recover.
But despite making it as hard as possible on myself…
I fell in love with the sport and raced for close to 15 years.
What important lesson did I learn on race day?
I learned that if you don’t have a proper warm up…your race IS your warm up!
So, what does that mean?
If you go into a race “cold” your body is absolutely not prepared for the intensity of a cyclocross race… Your first couple of laps will be way harder than they should be as your body attempts to meet the challenge you’ve just imposed on it. It’s like racing into shape…but that’s for another blog post!
A coach will create a structured process for you to do on race day.
This of course includes a proper warm up (typically done on a trainer with your cross bike), and also a “to do” list of sorts, so you don’t have to remember what you need to bring or what to do every race.
You will learn good racing habits that will help to take a lot of the stress out of race day.