Alright alright alright, it’s September and #crossishere. What races are you doing, what are your goals, and what equipment are you using?
This is going to be a big year for me. I’m upgrading to race with the fast guys (masters elite/open), so I’m going to get my ass handed to me every weekend. I’ve got 17 races on the calendar, with the last one being nationals in December. The Nats course this year is a course that I’ve raced many times and had success on, so I’m excited. My stretch goal for nationals is to finish on the lead lap, but that’s not totally in my control (okay, that sounds weird); ranking points are hard to come by here in the PNW (very few USAC sanctioned races), so I’ll be starting in the back of the field. Getting through the chokepoints on the first lap is going to be key.
I’ll be riding my trusty Trek Boone, single oval ring, quarq powermeter.
Got my first two events this weekend (we’ve had some racing in New England already, but they were out in Western MA and I’m near Boston, not worth driving when there’s so much all season under 60mins from me).
Really have no good idea what to expect, my training FTP went from 275 last season to 310 for a lot of this year (at around 160lbs), but the quality of my summer training has been kind of a mixed bag with the heat. Regardless, I should have some more power at my disposal.
I’m 39 but racing age 40 now, so I’ll occasionally be in the older 4/5 fields when they separate us, and if I’m feeling especially masochistic could go in the masters 1-4 field, but I won’t lol
As far as goals, at least for now would just like to keep improving my crossresults points (which we use for staging in our region). Last year I was a back of the pack and was just hoping for some top half finishes, and I did that, so my starting position puts me where I could do some more things. So maybe top 1/4 of the field finishing would be great to start off as a goal. If I could get into top 10 with some regularity at some point this year I would be super thrilled.
As far as my gear, I’ve got my 2017 raleigh RX 1.0, 2x11 SRAM setup, canti brakes FTW lol (and a powertap that I’ve moved permanently into CX duty)
I’ll be starting my first winter 'cross season on the 15th. I’ll be in the V40 field, but towards the back (at least if the summer series is any indicator). I only got a 'cross bike a few weeks ago, so this is all new to me! It’s a secondhand Kona Major Jake with canti brakes, Mavic Ksyrium wheels and Ultegra 10 speed running 1x. It’s the lightest bike I own (around 7.5kg) and it’s really fun, but I’ve not ridden it in the mud.
Targets - getting better so I can finish on the same lap as the leaders at the event my club is running in December.
Focus Mares i got 2 years ago. Just ordered a set of tubeless Donnelly PDX tires I’ll be running tubeless using skinnystrippers on non-tubeless rims. Setuo worked great with my vittoria terreno dry tires. Folded the tire completely over, even completely separated the bead from the rim and couldnt get it to burp.
I was middle of the pack last year. Moved up to cat 4 for this year, and will be racing the 4 and 4/5 races back to back most sundays. I startrd trainerroad at the end of last season, and have gone through ssb /short power build twice since. Looking to podium once during the season, or at the very least be towards the front of races consistentlytly.
Nice! I’ve been running PDXs for years and love them. I’ll start the season on the MXP until we get a little moisture (last few years that hasn’t really happened before Thanksgiving, but this has been a much wetter summer).
Getting ready to start my second full season of cross next week at Jingle Cross. Really looking forward to a drier course than last year and, at least right now, a front row call-up, which is a far cry from my almost last row call-up last year.
After that it’s back to Texas where I’ll jump into a couple of local weekday series and weekend races leading up to Ruts n Guts and Resolution CX towards the end of November. Along the way I plan to have fun and hopefully build on some of the success I had last season. My only goal for the season is to rack up some upgrade points so I at least have the option of bumping up if I want.
Diving in head first this fall with my first every cross racing. Just got a stock Crux Elite last week (Rival 1x 11-32). Based in CO, so there are races every weekend it seems all over the front range from now until December. I’m stoked and hope my years of mtb and strong road race season this year will help me in the skills and fitness department.
Switched over to tubeless which was super painless (thank you Specialized for making that easy) and road around today testing various pressures. Got down to like 35psi and the traction is great but man it feels a bit loose.
Here in New Zealand our cross season is basically over, after years of wanting to I finally plucked up the courage and raced the last couple of races, pretty much straight off the couch with no fitness and really enjoyed it, even with coming last… but its prompted me to get back into training after over a decade of doing almost no cycling!
Started last week with trainer road and looking forward to some gains
Bike wise I picked up a Speshy Crux second hand, should do me ok for a while
Well, starting my 4th season of CX and my life is a series of dissapointments when it comes to CX. The 2015 was my first season and loved it, 2016 season featured a broken clavicle in August, 2017 featured a hurricane (that’s my job) so I couldn’t really train or race, last year I started a decent season but was shipped to Raleigh, NC and couldn’t race there. This year I’m way down on fitness as I’ve been working way too many 10-13 hour days from the Arkansas flooding, my FTP is down 12w (was down 20w at the end of July) and I’m training extremely hard to get back to 290w FTP, the goal is 330w to hit 4w/KG FTP.
This year’s goals are miserable because my fitness is so bad. I have a motorsports background so I kind of excel with bike handling and racecraft, the more muddy and shitty the conditions the better. I’m going to really work on conserving momentum, less snap with the power and continue letting corner speed carry me. I always start on the back row because I can’t handle the stress up front so I know I need to come to terms with that. The long term goal is to make it to cat-3 by nationals next year because I have a bedroom in Chicago and it’s way to convenient not to do that race.
I’m going to do 2-3 races on Wednesdays, one race Saturday, two races Sundays for the 2-3 weekend races we have per month. I’m also jumping on the XC races for training purposes on weekends without CX.
If the hurricanes pull me out of home for recovery I’m going to beg for Georgia or North Carolina as they have a better CX scene and try to race there. I did two months of just trainer work last year for Florence, really want to race this year.
Just joined TrainerRoad to help train up for Cross (first race Saturday). I’m leaning towards doing a mid volume base, since I’m fairly untrained, but I’m not sure what to do with the (fairly intense) workouts scheduled for the same day as some of the races. Just drop them completely? Try and move them around?
Drop them. The race is your workout. Do one or two of the tough midweek workouts (or, better yet, a mid-week cross practice if such a thing exists near you) and focus the weekend on racing.
Was the tire actually folding over, where your rim moves past the tire and smacks the ground? Or did it just feel generally squishy but no huge sideways movement in corners?
I’m no expert…but generally I’d say pressure should be low enough you’re not feeling bumps in the turf, high enough you dont get foldovers in hard turns or pinch flats.
I think you can go lower. At least to 30psi, if not 27-28. I run 33mm internal width rims and usually race on 20-24psi. On a smoother course I’ve dropped it to ~18psi and loved it. I weigh 155 lbs.
You can definitely get that down to 25, or even 20 if the conditions call for it. I’m ~180lbs and start my tubeless to around 25psi (grails 20mm internal). Softer isn’t always better, though, so you need to try things out in practice. Dry and smooth can be firmer. Super bumpy/pitted grass calls for softer. If there’s a lot of pavement, don’t go too soft or the transition are sketchy.
The plan for this year is to pick up where I left off last season. I was finishing top 10 (of 50-80) pretty consistently by mid-season. I should be able to capitalize on my rating for a good starting position right away this year. Fitness-wise I seem to be in at least as good shape as last years peak.
My season goal is to secure a cat3 upgrade, and hopefully picking up a podium or 2 in cat4 on the way. I already have a few points from non-podium placings. Once in cat3 I suppose I’ll be content to be pack-fodder and just try to learn better line choices, skills, and suffering.
I plan to race the entire chicago cross cup, probably a few wisconsin races including Trek CXC, maybe Jinglecross (gotta figure that out soon…) and regionals since that will be pretty close (and I rocked that course last year).
This will be my 2nd year riding a Canyon Inflite cf slx. 38t oval chainring. Quarq powermeter. Waxed chains. Tubular wheelset with Limus for the mud (need to get my butt into the shop to replace the rear as the casing is split… good thing it’s not muddy yet!). Tubeless wheelset for everything else with a few tire options.
and really enjoyed it, even with coming last… but its prompted me to get back into training after over a decade of doing almost no cycling!