I’d like the think that CX has a core of highly competitive bikey people but also that the party atmosphere and irreverent hijinx (such as they were and lasted) brought in people who aren’t generally inclined to race other disciplines. Who wants to get into ultralong unsupported grvl things when we were just enjoying dirty nasty racing on a small course with team tents and festivity in easy walking distance? Then again I could be biased.
Anyone want a Schwalbe Racing Ralph tubular tire?
Yours for shipping. Brand new.
First race of the season. I really enjoyed racing Singlespeed but was daydreaming and started at the back of the grid. My lowest ever finish but a really cool course. Very little mud. Not much off-camber, a bit of pedal strike on those bits tho on an 80’s road bike frame. Only 6th out of 7 in the SS class, in B. My back was jammed up from carting bags of sand the day before so had to walk the hurdles. Not fun for that part but doable everywhere else.
15 Likes
Race 2 of the season last weekend. A very popular course, altho no beach segment this year, thankfully. I was pretty happy with 10th of the CX class in B grade. Capped at 100 entries. Rode the green bike but positioned myself well on the grid so I didnt get stuck on the first corner. No crashes, rode all the off camber hairpins, my back is still only at 80% so walking the hairpins ( probably faster ) wasn’t an option. Fitness was lacking as I lost 2 places on the last lap. I think CX is short enough you can probably just fake it anyway to an extent. So I guess next one I should get the fixed gear thing going. Wasn’t going to do that with my shitty back as it was. Rode to and from the course from home. Tires were not very CX at all so ran them very low pressure… with tubes. 37mm WTB gravel somethings I picked up new from the thrift shop. Pretty firm under foot.
9 Likes
every year i tell myself cross is short enough that i can fake it. every year i am wrong.
7 Likes
I finally got to race the tracklocross rig last week. Early rise at 5:20 to help mark the course. At least it wasnt real cold. No frost. The guy that runs our coop had turned up for his second CX race and said crap, my bike isnt gonna make it in time. I offered him mine. Nothing to go wrong on it really, so he raced C grade while I kept an eye on his 4 year old until his friends arrived. He’d never raced fixed before either. He really was labouring the gear in the sticky mud so I took it down from a 34-17 to a 32-17 for my ride as there was room in the drop-outs. By the time I raced in A grade the course was a mess. I had to stop constantly as I still had the crappy road brakes on and they were just clogging with mud. So less braking and more running. I really should have had toe spikes but honestly conditions like this happen once every 10 years, and I dont have shoes toe spikes anyway. A few very boring pix before it got too muddy, altho that dangler pic is from B grade, so it only got worse. Anyway, glad i geared it down for the mud but there was the one place on the gravel stretch where I was under geared.
6 Likes
Making me excited for next season already. Sounds like it was a proper day of cross.
It was… it got me thinking tho, if it was just mud, its not so much of a problem, do you have grass getting into stuff in your courses too ?
Totally. The grass combined with the mud is the worst. Sometimes we have races that are big enough that the grass gets pushed away and all that’s left is mud, but that’s rare. I always hate cleaning all the mud off with just water and then having to go in and unwind all the grass from the hubs, cranks and derailer.
2 Likes
If ida had the balls to ride that bike with the brakes removed it would have been a way more pleasant experience but there was a very short steep hill with a 90 degree turn at the bottom, plus my back is still a bit fukt.
Once again brakes doing nothing but slowing you you down
5 Likes
brakes may or may not also be for fakes
2 Likes
Not cross related only mud related but apparently the hard enduro moto guys cut foam and jam it in around controls for muddy races to keep mud from jamming stuff up. Just gotta figure out a way to make something similar work for the der der