{"id":302,"date":"2011-10-17T18:51:30","date_gmt":"2011-10-17T18:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nobugs.org\/lejog\/?p=302"},"modified":"2011-10-17T23:20:49","modified_gmt":"2011-10-17T23:20:49","slug":"starting-at-cyclocross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobugs.org\/lejog\/?p=302","title":{"rendered":"Starting at Cyclocross"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday’s race was my first cyclocross race. Here’s some thoughts and notes in case others are tempted to try it out.<\/p>\n

I don’t own a ‘real’ cyclocross bike. Instead, I used my hardtail mountain bike<\/a>, put on a set of narrow tyres<\/a> and stripped off all bottle cages, lights etc. The rules for the Scottish Cyclocross series<\/a> say that you can basically ride anything you like. The majority of people at the race were on cyclocross bikes, but there were quite a few other MTBs around. The race was a mudbath and lots of people suffered mechanicals when the mud\/grass mix wrapped around their calliper brakes<\/a>. My disc brakes didn’t have such problems! But my rear derailleur was a mess of vegetation by the end of the race.<\/p>\n

The race venue itself was super busy, with cars overflowing into the country lane outside. I asked someone where the race registration was, paid my \u00a312 race fee plus \u00a33 for a day race license and in return got a number to safety-pin to my top and a timing chip to stick to my helmet. Before getting my bike out, I watched the start of the woman&vets race, figuring out what clothing to wear and how plastered by mud they were getting.<\/p>\n

Back at the car, I got my bike together, drank a half bottle of juice and some raisins then headed to the course. After the previous race ended, the track was open for practise. I followed a bunch of riders round the first part of the course, but then my HRM told me I was waay overcooking it and so I backed off. It was useful having a sighting lap, but the course was pretty straightforward to ride (although hard to ride well<\/i>) .. there’s no big surprise rock gardens unlike in mountainbike race courses.<\/p>\n

I set up near the back of the starting grid and blasted up the hill with everyone else. Actually, I took it relatively easy on the first climb since I knew there’d be a logjam at the first singletrack and I had no places to lose. The logjam materialised, and the whole first section of singletrack was a processsion of pushing and sliding. Fortunately, the track opened out into fireroad which split up the field and it was freeflowing after that.<\/p>\n

I got settled down, trying hard not to burn out too early. But it’s hard to get settled when the terrain changes so much. From the finish line, the first part of the lap was a steep ridable climb up to a mudbath on the hill, followed by a long run of hardpack. The middle part was narrow muddy singletrack through the woods, linked by a short fireroad to more woodland – wider but muddier and sloping. The final part of the lap started with a carry-yer-bike slippery steep hill, then a long drag up through a muddy meadow .. a mix of slurried pedalling and pushing when you ran short of momentum.<\/p>\n

I quickly lost track of how many laps I’d done – probably 4 or 5 in total? I ran short of fuel in the second half of the race and slowed down a lot to make the end. Classic tale of overcooking it early on …<\/p>\n

There was a great fun vibe around the track, with marshalls and spectators cheering. I had a couple of ‘battles’ with other riders, mostly because I managed to make some progress in the mud. However, I was too toasted to do the faster sections at speed so I’d lose all of my illgotten gains quickly! The other riders were really friendly, and I found quite a few who were similarly doing their first cyclocross race.<\/p>\n

Tips and advice?<\/p>\n