Cross about cross

(courtesy of Cross-Crazy by LCS)

Yesterday was my first cyclocross race since last February. In the throes of hillclimb-cum-off-season, trying to cling to my five-minute max power from road race season while letting go of the endurance and threshold a bit, I found the race a lot harder than anticipated. Halfway through I started to fade badly and if I hadn't put in a fast final lap I would have finished even further down than 7th in the women's race. Nobody to blame but myself though; I'm caught in that self-induced mix of off-season dwindling fitness, lack of motivation to push myself and rusty cyclocross skills. And stuck with a bike that's showing itself more and more to be below the level I want to ride.

This was driven home in particular by the performance of CJ Boom yesterday, who's racking up an impressive run of good results in her cross racing. A perusal of her blog shows why: she's serious about it and is putting in the effort accordingly, both in her gear (hand-built tubs) and her attitude. As someone who was handy to measure my performances against last year in cross and this year on the road, it's pretty inspiring to see her doing so well and really driving her racing up a level. The result is she's dropped me like a 4th cat newbie. And I will admit to not liking this one bit!

So that leaves me with two choices:

I can get a lot more serious about cross, as I have with road racing. Make a point of practising those mud/sand/grass handling skills, mounts/dismounts, run-ups, gear selection, etc. outside of races. Get a much better bike, more wheel and tire choices, race more often and on as many courses as possible, get some results so I can be gridded. Train to start faster and more aggressively, go back to threshold workouts to bring my 40-60 min power up again.

Or I can forget about all of that and go out to race and have fun. Try not to crash too much and hope that my skills improve by coincidence or consequence. Enjoy myself on a day out with lots of other cyclists (cross is after all the most inclusive, welcoming and social of all races in my opinion). Keep riding my same old bike and clincher tires. Start happily ungridded, unstressed, and towards the rear of the field and see how many I overtake during the race. And most importantly, not bother to train for it and not care!

Not that these two choices are entirely mutually exclusive of course. In fact, the top-end crossers get just as much fun and enjoyment out of racing as the lanterne rouge Go-Race guys I'm sure. And I find it really hard to keep from being competitive when I have a number on my back, no matter what my pre-race intentions are. But at the same time, I'm a bit worn out from racing non-stop since March and I'm dying for a break mentally if not physically.

So in my typically half-assed way, it's going to have to be choice number three for now. I will upgrade my bike to something lighter with better components (if only to have a more enjoyable ride) but I won't do much different about wheels and tires. I will race when and where I feel like it -- and when I do, vow to make it count -- but not be too bothered if that doesn't happen too often. If the weather turns crappy and I want to ride but not on the road, I'll get the cross bike out and practise a bit. Once the national hill climb is over and I've had a few weeks off, I'll re-evaluate where I am and what I want to accomplish over the winter and whether cross is something that's important enough to me to train for specifically. And I'll still have fun! Not sure I can ever quite give up cake though...

Cyclocross

I had been planning to post a little retrospective of my 2009 season -- which, as I've been reminded, was a pretty successful one -- but in the meantime, I thought I'd write a bit about my latest adventure in cycle racing: cyclocross, aka off-road riding on a road bike with knobby tires. This winter, what with the unusual cold weather creating icy roads and freezing windchills, cyclocross has been my saving grace to get outside on otherwise snowy and unrideable days, not to mention a welcome escape from the indoor turbo trainer.


Snowy conditions can't stop the cyclocrosser! (photo Roger Merriman)

My off-road skills have never been awesome (something I'd like to work on once I buy a good mountain bike), but cyclocross doesn't tend to have much in the way of technical climbs or descents. It's just good old-fashioned mud, grass, short sharp run-ups, off-camber corners, and the occasional unjumpable barrier thrown in for fun. In fact, it's become such a popular sport the past few years that even the BBC sent a sports reporter out to investigate, who filmed this video (watch for me to overtake him at 30 seconds in, ha ha).


What goes up... (photo Jim Ley)


Enjoys the ride down! (photo Jim Ley)

Having both the outer path of Richmond Park (my favourite running loop in dry weather) and Esher Common/Oxshott Heath close by means I can be out practising my riding skills on wooded trails and open fields within 15 minutes of leaving home. And whereas a similar park area in Canada might have a few trails here and there, wonderfully old heavily populated England means dozens of criss-crossing paths in every direction. I can easily spend two hours playing in a few hundred acres and never ride the same path twice. The same goes for races: a small bit of single-track and a football field can make up a course that takes 10 minutes to traverse!


A mile-long course in the space of a few acres.

As for race skills, years of riding a city bike around the Netherlands had already perfected my coasting dismount, and triathlon transitions meant I was good at jumping on the bike at speed too (though in cyclocross you already have your shoes on!) Running up hills: no problem, in fact the more running in a race, the better I am relative to other riders. But the wet grassy corners and giant ruts of mud everywhere have required me to up my game lest I crash more often than not, or worse yet, take someone else out. Thankfully taking a tumble in cyclocross usually means a soft landing, though embarrassingly often in front of a crowd of cheering fans.


Not so gracefully negotiating a corner. (photo Jim Ley)


The imfamous Herne Hill "hurdy-gurdies". (photo Jim Ley)

The races last about an hour with anywhere from five to ten laps of the course to complete. Add in a mass start with up to 100 riders and the first couple of laps are usually quite chaotic. But as a flat-out 60-minute training session, you couldn't ask for a better workout. By the end my quads are burning and my lungs bursting, but I always finish with a smile on my face.


A typical race start. (photo LondonCycleSport)


Jumping on and off the bike. (photo LondonCycleSport)


The mud flies! (photo LondonCycleSport)

Surprisingly, I've managed to pull off some good finishes in my London Cyclocross League races so far, though after a disappointing 4th place last race -- 38 seconds behind 3rd place and all of that lost in the first lap -- I can see I need to work on my starting position and effort if I want to improve. The women usually race with the main group, so call-ups (being placed in the front few rows) are rare. It just means I need to get to the start line earlier and hold my place aggressively so the late-comers can't push their way in front of me. With a hard first 30-60 seconds to maintain my position in the group after the gun, I'm hoping to keep from getting caught behind slower folks. Starting near the front also means I can stick with some faster wheels longer to take advantage of the draft through the open parts of the course. Time will tell how this new tactic works for me!


Sometimes the bike takes a beating. (photo Jim Ley)


But often the rider does too!