Cycling
Never ridden a cyclo-cross (CX) event before? British CX pro and reigning world U23 champion Tom Pidcock reveals his essential tips that will help get you to the finish.
Cyclo-cross (CX) season is officially here, and the fast-and-furious off-road drop-bar bike discipline is bigger than ever. Essentially an off-road criterium with obstacles along the way. Before you turn up at your first CX event though, it’s important to understand that it’s quite a different challenge when compared to your traditional road-based sportive or ride.
To get to the bottom of cyclo-cross, we asked reigning world U23 cyclo-cross champion Tom Pidcock to share his tips for taking part in your first CX race.
1. Recce the course
“First things first, recce the course,” says Tom. “It’s hard to do if your race is first thing in the morning, but I’ve only ever done one ‘cross race where I haven’t ridden the course before – that was because I was competing the day before and had to get a ferry overnight to the next race.
“’Cross is finding the fastest way around the course, and you can’t do that without looking at different lines and testing them out. If you’re starting a race with a field of 100, you can’t just hurtle down from the start line and not know which way the course is going to turn off. It’s beneficial for your performance, but also for safety.”
2. Warm up properly
As cyclo-cross is fast and furious from the off, it’s important to get your body warmed up before lining up on the start line. “I will try and ride the course for about 30-45 minutes on the morning of the race,” explains Tom. “I then do a set warm-up on a turbo for 20 minutes that stops about 10-15 minutes before the race, depending on how far away the start is.”
To get ready for racing, Tom uses the following warm-up routine:
- Five minutes easy riding
- Five minutes getting progressively harder
- Thirty seconds sustained power, 30 seconds recovery riding (“I just do as many of them as I feel I want to on the day")
- Five times 10-second sprints in hardest gear with 20 seconds of recovery between each.
3. Don’t go flat out at the start
You’ve recced the course and are nice and warmed up, and you’re now ready to race. But it’s important not to go flat out from the off. “I never go flat out in the start – I’m quite a steady starter,” says Tom. “You need to be able to get a good start without going into the red. Try and ease up a bit before the first corner and take the speed down. If you go too far into the red at the start, you’re going to have to take some time to recover and you’ve got a long race ahead of you.”
4. Focus on riding steadily
Unlike a road race where the routes are generally big, wide roads with sweeping corners, CX courses can be tight and technical. Rather than racing to every corner and braking hard into each one, your focus should be on riding smoothly.
“You need to brake, obviously – you can’t freewheel around the whole course,” explains Tom. “But just focus on being smooth. Racing drivers don’t slam on and lock up the wheels – they focus on being as smooth as possible and using all the track.”
He adds that, in terms of pedalling, ‘cross is quite punchy, and the straights are where you focus on getting up to speed. If you’re on a fast course (ie not mud or sand), to look for the brown line: “This is where everyone rides. You want to ride on the edge so your tyres don’t get as wet and you’ll have more grip in the corners.”
5. Try to overcome obstacles without dismounting
In the recce, you work out what you’re going to do at each obstacle. If you can stay on your bike, it’s better. "Everyone now bunny hops the hurdles. You’ve obviously got to run the stairs. But it’s better if you can ride the banks because you don’t have to take the time to get back on your bike," says Pidcock.
There are different ways of running with your bike depending on the obstacle;
- You can hold the bars and just push it
- You can hold the top tube and bars and run and carry it
- Or you can put it on your shoulder
When shouldering, people pick it up in different ways too. "I grab the downtube and pull it up. That’s probably easier because you don’t have to flick it on your shoulder, you just put it on. In terms of gearing, you’d change down to an easier gear ahead of the obstacle – if you go from the flat to a run-up, an easier gear will help you get going again at the top."
6. Find your most comfortable line in the corners
You need to find your comfort zone. The tyre has grip, but you need to find the line that gives you a bit of grip too. If there’s a bit of a bank on the corner, that’s going to allow you to go faster around it than riding a soft camber. If it’s muddy, you’re going to need to find the ruts – they’re harder to ride in but a lot faster.
7. Bide your time before making your move
On every course there are places that suit other riders better than you and places you feel like you’re stronger – that just depends on you really. It’s always at the end of the race though where you make your move. You don’t want to go too early. It’s not as much like a road race where they can work together to chase you down, but if you go too early, you can blow and they can catch up.
8. How to deal with mud on the face
If you’ve ever seen footage from the end of a muddy cyclo-cross race, it can be hard to find a spot on the rider that isn’t caked in the brown stuff. And there’s not a lot you can do about it:
“The main thing is trying to keep it out of your eyes. You can wear glasses, but they can quickly fog up and get covered in crap. On descents, put your head a bit to the side of your front wheel so it doesn’t spray directly in your face,” says Pidcock.
Want to see the pros in action? Tune in to the Telenet UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup
Watch the Telenet UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup live from Tabor on Nov 16 on Red Bull TV;
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