No water, nothing to carry for such a short event. If you get a flat, unless you're on tubulars, grab your bike on your shoulder and run till you reach the pit. If you have pit wheels, change your wheel and keep going.
My first races, I started slowly with the last starters, my goal was to pass as many riders as I could.
Lots of fun !! Happy CX racing !!

Louis :-)

-Don’t put too much weight on your front wheel.
-Get off before you loose momentum
-Green is grip
-If yo wear a dress or cape or something flowy, make sure you dismount on the non-drive side
-You are more likely to get a drink from the aid stations if you are wearing a dress or a cape or something flowy
-It’s usually Pabst or around here Rainier
-If there is a slip and slide or a tunnel detour take it, but don’t fall for the dollar bill on the fishing line

Warm up well, err’ing on the side of too much. It will be very hard at the beginning, and your ability to suffer will depend largely on the quality of your warmup. Much like a criterium.

SEND IT!

Secret Squirrel? If so, I’ll be there for The Knight’s Watch, the New Englanders, and the Donut Madison.

As others have mentioned:
—take cages off the bike. Unnecessary weight.
—bring pit wheels if you’re gonna be worried about a flat. Otherwise, no kit. Pray.
—warm up is crucial for the first few minutes. Zwift racing has thankfully prepared me pretty well for the hell that is the first few minutes of CX.
—momentum is your friend.
—be balanced on the bike.
—if it’s wet at all, you’re better off using embro on the legs instead of tights.
—HAVE FUN!

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

Do have fun, don't take it too seriously, and definitely stop for any and all beer hand-ups. It's the only way to get the full experience :)

This is pretty much word for word what I was going to say.

Take the hand ups, have fun, get muddy and ride well over your limit for 40mins.

Oh and wear a stupid hat.

definitely no food or water unless its >90 degrees. maybe eat a gel 10 min prior but nothing else.
this tip is from nat champ tim johnson. your power profile/histogram should look like a U. opposite of TT or triathlon. you are going either 100% or 0% the entire time. coasting where you can and into corners (but carrying as much speed as possible, a skill in and of itself) and 100% power out of the corner until you can coast into the next one. repeat x 50
(by 100% i mean all out, not % of FTP)

no food or water. go faster than you think you need to and when everyone else slows down, keep going :)

to the last poster, i almost wish you hadn't clarified the "100%" comment because the idea of someone pacing a CX race based on a percent of FTP is just too funny

Yup Secret Squirrel but I'm only registered for the Knight's Watch. Should be a blast. Thanks for the tips!

Thanks everyone for the responses. Go hard, drink beer, have fun, don't take it too seriously. All things I can do.

I'll be there for the Knights Watch as well. In the back.

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-Mike

Vertex Fit Systems (http://www.vertexfitsystems.com) | Bikeworks (http://www.bikeworksma.com) | Russo Racing (http://www.r2tri.com)

Think we raced together at coonamessett, I’m portuguese too so I notice all the portuguese names lol

Start near the back. You will finish pretty close to where you should regardless of start position unless competing for the win.
Be ready for a 10km race at a 5km pace.

I'll be at Secret Squirrel in the Knight's Watch race, also. I'll be wearing the Steve the Bike Guy jersey and will be staged near the very back of the grid.

Looking forward to the race. Are you riding a true SS bike for the New Englanders or will you be zip-tying your shifter? I've never done a SS race and am considering using the second option.

To the OP. Most important is to have fun! Do one or two pre-ride laps to get a feel for the course. That will give you an idea where the run-ups and barriers are located.

I turned my wife’s JTS into a single speed with a metric shitton of cassette spacers and a prayer. My pit bike for that will be my normal rig with zip ties.

I’m wearing my Sonic Endurance stuff early in the day. I’ll be mid pack at the start and praying to hold on in The Knights Watch. Find me for a beer immediately after said race.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

One of the beautiful things about the New England race scene—call-ups for the start are based on crossresults points, then by date of registration for those who haven’t raced before. It helps sort stuff out quick. Opening sprint is still full of plenty of piss and vinegar though.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

Opening sprint is still full of plenty of piss and vinegar though.


Don't race CX myself, but just wrapped up my mini-season of CX Race Announcing finishing up with the Provincial and then Canadian CX Championships and a UCI Points level race. So I get to see it all!


It's ridiculous how hard CX is right from the get go. If your first time, I would follow other's advice of starting at the back and then ounce it sorts itself out and it's all single file with gaps, start to move up. It's amazing how much time/distance you can make up on the technical stuff if you are good at this - the on/off the bike. The run-ups. The barriers . . . etc . . It all starts to add up.

The REALLY good CX racers/riders have this rhythm that they get into, and of course they get to know the loop well after the 2nd or 3rd lap.


My only regret in endurance sports is that, I never got into CX. Had I not got big into Triathlon, I think CX would have been my thing!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

It’s not too late Fleck! I fell hard in love with it this year. It’s honestly the most fun I’ve had on a bike in years.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

It’s honestly the most fun I’ve had on a bike in years.


I get my thrills now standing on the sidelines Announcing and Commentating on the best CX racers in Canada. A few observations about CX generally - some we have gone over already:

- It's a lot harder to do REALLY well than it looks.

- The very best make it look easy.

- You have to put out MASSIVE power at certain times and hardly any at other times.

- Promotes and enhances extraordinary bike handling skills

- It is a TON of fun, and if you do take a tumble and fall down, it's usually a low speed thing and you fall on mud or grass . . you get back up and carry on.

- I've never figured out why it's NOT more popular than it is. It has grown a bit, but still, my feeling is it should be a lot bigger in Canada and the U.S.

- It should be in the Olympic Games - it may be a key reason that it's not bigger than it is. Sports Funding in Canada is tied to Olympic Games participation, thus CX get's zero traditional sports funding (Not sure what the situation is in the US).

- Amazing vibe at races/events. Where else are people handing you up a beer, mid race! Or taunting you with a $10 bill to grab??

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Well hot damn that was fun!

Well do tell. Broke my collarbone in a CX race two weeks ago so I need to live vicariously through you all at the moment.

IME runners do well at CX once they figure out the bike handling part because there's times when you can make up lots of places running around people struggling to ride a slow section.

I've had a serious case of the screw-its* this fall. I raced ONE CX race (Hyattsville here in MABRA-land). Raced SS and while I managed to pass people, I still got lapped by the winners of the Open class that started a minute ahead of the SSCX cat.

*I couldn't breathe thru the latter part of the summer, which made CX-style efforts tough to impossible which made the thought of paying $$ to get my ass handed to me every weekend a tough pill to swallow.

There's always next year

M

Great first CX experience. Super fun race with an awesome vibe. The course was on the more technical side which played to my strengths as I do a fair amount of mountain biking. Definitely got me fired up for more CX races next season.