I rode my first Cross in 1973 and raced most seasons since in NW England. I finished 2nd in V60 category last year but placed 3rd in most, and won the last one in the snow and ice of Salford in February.
I’ve three bikes, just one xwing on cantis, others are mechanical disc, a Dolan and a BH, both carbon.
In the NW we seldom have dry conditions so run FMB supamuds or slalom, but a few wheels have specialised terra, all tubulars. I like the terra’s as they are grippy and a lot more robust than the fmbs, but you loose on the suppleness.
I coach a group of seniors and youths and enjoy taking them on path rides, or doing skills in the park, it keeps me going.
Not raced yet as I’m in Spain getting some hilly miles in.
so in local CX news, GP Gloucester, which had been running for 20 years and was a UCI level event in New England, has been cancelled for this year. Huge bummer and lots of folks really disappointed. Used to think CX races were relatively safe from bureaucratic nonsense like road, but maybe not?
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JFC. 35 psi? Probably knock that waaaaay down. I run around 22/24, even lower if I’m on my tubulars. Oh yeah, Harlow Platts. Despite having my first podium there, I hate that course. Just run the sand. You’ll pass 10-15 people in that section. Have fun. I’m taking mots of September off and back around October when the temps are a bit more manageable and the courses get more technical. I’m a 3. See you out there!
Ran 29/30 psi this morning and it felt great. Did feel like I bottomed out the rim one time hitting a divet in the trail. Was riding mostly dirt trails, loose over hard etc. Sounds like you’d recommend even lower for a grass / sand course? That’s what is lined up for this weekend.
haha ya Harlow this weekend. I’ll try 25psi tomorrow for some training laps at Valmont. Lucky for me all the Cat 5 (and 4) races are at 8am when it’s still cool out. 
Enjoy! I had the most fun when I was moving up and honestly SS 4 was my favorite season. Cat 3 is just a kick in the face every weekend.
Like @ccftri said, drop them. The race is your workout. If you really want to push yourself (and you have the legs), do multiple races.
Yes lower for sure on smoother courses. Many people say that if you don’t bottom out one or two times per lap then your pressure is too high.
I think reading the terrain is something that the top racers do that is often overlooked by us mere mortals. Knowing when to ease up for a second, and knowing how to properly transition from dirt to sand to grass to pavement is key (and something I’m lousy at).
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That is super cool (both the racing and the trip to Spain!). Obviously the equipment has changed drastically, but what were courses like back in the day? What about field sizes?
The lower you go, the “lighter” you need to be on the bike. I don’t mean lose weight, I mean anticipate those divots/edges and take your weight off the bars and/or seat, and possibly pull up lightly on the front so it’s not a full force hit. Ultimately this is smother, thus faster, no matter what tire pressure you run. But it’s a skill you need to build, and the better you get at it, the lower pressure you can get away with.
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I’m way too excited for cyclocross season, based on my fitness & experience.
Starting tomorrow evening, I’ll be applying my 3.0 w/kg FTP and beginner cornering abilities to the Thrilla series in Bend, OR on Thursday nights. I’ll probably do the Cross Crusade race weekend in Bend, and try to get up to Tacoma for a race once or twice this year. After we make it through the tax return extension deadlines, I’ll see if I can find any USAC races within a 3-6 hour drive of Central Oregon.
This season I’m hoping to snag a couple top 10s in the Cross Crusade races as a cat IV, and get enough upgrade points to race nationals (masters 40-whatever).
I’ll be piloting my Felt F55x, Rival equipped, with a mostly new quiver of tubeless tires (Maxxis Speed Terrane, Schwalbe X-One, Donnelly PDX) that I’m now realizing it would have been a good idea to test out off-road before jumping into a race.
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Yeah, that’s sad. I’m all the way across the country, but I always looked forward to reading about Gloucester.
Super excited to see what this season brings. I was injured in May and June (and am still feeling some of that injury) which derailed a bit of the build-up, so expectations have been adjusted. I just want to stay healthy and be able to race another half-dozen races. I also need to improve a lot in muddy conditions. This is my Achilles heel in terms of course conditions. Another win would be awesome.
Last season was a big step up for me. Only 7 races (father of 3, etc), but 3 podiums (one win, and two second-place finishes) in cat 3/4, which was the first year racing this category. I’m hoping to do as many races this year, but race MN state CX champs in November.
Gear-wise I’ll be on my Felt F4x running Force 1x (40t) with 11-32 cassette. Also running Schwalbe X-Ones for every race as they were awesome in all conditions last season.
Sometimes there were only 20 starters, and the courses were more rural. Brickworks or over farm fields with stream crossings. The world’s championship were sometimes more akin to running races, not that I was anyway near that level. The cross races gave me better bike handling and leg strength that led to a national RR championship win the following year. All good memories now.
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@redlude97 That looks perfect, seriously, exactly how I would want it. Use that little bit of tape as a visual guide to make sure you’ve got the tire on straight. If you see it dipping below the rim and then back up and then back down…then you know it’s on crooked.
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Please give a review of the Speed Terranes when you have some miles on them. I was going to get some but thus far have been too lazy to order (man, that’s pretty damn lazy). I’ll be starting the season on MXPs.
First impressions on the Maxxis Speed Terrane (tubeless) tires:
Getting them on the rims was pretty easy (compared to mounting tires on my road bike), and I haven’t had any burps or sealant explosions yet (after 2 days of commuting), so I’m hoping everything’s seated properly.
They seem to roll faster on pavement than the Schwalbe X-Ones (I just got a Strava top-10 on my cross bike, wearing a ginormous backpack and spinning out my 1x gearing on the way home from work the other day).
Doing low speed figure 8s on grass, I didn’t have any grip problems turning around trees in the park. They feel “floaty” in sprinty efforts on the grass and on powdery dirt (says the roadie whenever the wheels don’t move forward in a perfectly straight line), but not in an unsettling way.
The hole shot in our weekly series involves turning off the pavement and then sprinting up a very dusty, fairly steep hill, so I’ll find out pretty quickly if I can get enough traction to make it up without losing places on the climb.
Have fun in the Thrilla. My company is based in Bend, and I will definitely be down there at least one Thursday this fall, but I don’t know if I’ll have a bike or any time to ride. I was hoping to come down this summer and rent an MTB to shred Phil’s trails, but that never worked out.
Our cross season starts next weekend 
It will be my 3rd season.
I am hoping to podium overall in the league this year, just missing out coming 4th last year.
We have 13 races including Regionals and Nationals. I didn’t race either the R or N races last year so another aim is to compete at these.
I feel fitness ready but my technical skills still feel like they’re falling short. I try to remember that last year I didn’t particularly prep or train for CX. I hadn’t been on my cross bike since last season and was probably quite fatigued from racing throughout the summer. This year I have raced a lot less during the summer and been on my CX bike at least once a week since the end of the season. I’ve also practiced specific skills which I didn’t do last year at all. I can hopefully take a bit of confidence from this!
I am a little undecided how to proceed with my training throughout the season. What’s everyone’s thoughts?
I go to the gym twice a week and chose not to train on the bike these days (I’ve experimented and don’t see any benefit). With a race each weekend, 2 full interval sessions during the week can feel like too much (making it 3 x efforts per week) but 1 session feels like I’m not doing myself justice! How do people work around their race schedule?
On 2 vs 1 intervals in season. Sounds like you are rested enough coming into the season to handle 3 hard sessions and then you could dial it back as you look to uncover fitness with freshness later in the season, depending on your goal races.
Even the LV Cyclocross specialty program throws 3 hard workouts at you a week, especially the first 3 weeks.
I am a fan of 2 times in the gym a week. Our series races on Sunday, so I go:
Mon: Off
Tues: Gym + Easy Ride or Endurance ride depending if I need maintenance there.
Wed: Cx Practice with hot laps
Thurs: Gym
Fri: Intervals
Sat: Openers/Skills, fairly light
Sun: Race
I experiment with intervals Tues/Thurs instead of Wed/Fri if I think I need more rest ahead of the race.