Get ready for 'cross

The Fourth of July is still a week away, but it's not too early to start thinking about cyclocross. Why so soon? 'Cross season is a short, sharp shock to your system, so your fitness needs to be there right from the start. As if that's not enough, you need your cyclocross skills honed as well, and that means practice, practice, practice, especially if you're new to the sport. Last but not least, 2018 looks to be an outstanding year for racing cyclocross in eastern Iowa, all the more reason to plan your season wisely.

Specific fitness
​Fitness is never a bad thing, so whatever your passion is this time of year keep it up. But with the clock ticking down toward cyclocross season it's a good idea to get a bit more specific with some of your training.

WorkshopWheatridge

​​If you're part of the .2 mile club you might consider a bit of running just to get used to it. If you're mainly a runner you should probably clock some miles on your bike. If you bike but your thing is marathon mtb or century rides, try to fit in some intervals or hard shorter efforts.

Any training will help, but training that resembles cyclocross will help more. Have fun with it and do what you can, but understand that fitness is a process, it's not an end. Greg Lemond should have been talking about cyclocross when he said, "It doesn't get any easier, you just get faster." 

Specific skills
Years ago I drove a friend nuts insisting that cyclocross isn't about fitness, it's about skills. That's a false dichotomy, since you can have both great fitness and mad skills. But my point was that cyclocross' unique skill set will bite you in the ass if you're slow to master it: a few seconds here and there and you're out of a race no matter how fit.

Trek CXC 2017 was the first World Cup race with equal prize money for women. The whole series will soon follow suit.

​The good news, though, is that cyclocross basics are not at all hard to pick up. Dismounting, remounting, and various carries can be learned in a matter of minutes. Then all you need to do is practice them for hours: it's one thing to remount at your leisure while rested in a quiet park, it's another to remount as fast as you can while exhausted and gasping for air, with racers on either side and the sound of your heartbeat just barely muffling the heckling from friends. During your race you want to think about your line and what gear you need next, or maybe your next beer handup, but not "how do I do this again?"
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Fortunately there are some great instructional videos around, like the one below from Global Cycling Network. Hit YouTube with "how to cyclocross" and you'll find plenty to keep you busy. Pick up a trick or two then visit the nearest park to try them out. Either that or meet up with me or a teammate for a lesson or two. We are always happy to talk someone through the basics.

The 2018 season will be special
We're spoiled racing cyclocross in Iowa. The best World Cup race anywhere, Jingle Cross, is just down the street in Iowa City. Another World Cup race, Trek CXCup, is just three hours away in Madison. Iowa's season kicks off Memorial Day weekend with two days of Cannonball Cross in Mason City and just hammers away from there.

My only complaints stem from an embarrassment of riches: there are too many great Iowa races for me to ever get to cool events in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Nebraska; and the two World Cup races are so early in the year that they can lead to a bit of an anti-climax of a season.

Again this season it will be hard to choose between IACX Series events and big races out of state,

Wout van Aert won a crazy muddy Jingle Cross in 2016.

but 2018 will culminate in a very special way with Cyclocross Nationals rescheduled for mid-December in nearby Louisville, Kentucky. Yea!

'Cross Words
In the next few posts we'll look a bit more at training for cylocross, for both fitness and skills. We'll also look at some of the races coming up. If you have questions or topics you'd like us to cover, hit the comments below or write us at CRANDIC Racing Club.

​Are you ready for 'cross?