Your First CX Race

Cyclocross season is getting underway and the local Longhorn CX Series starts in three weeks, so some of you are getting ready for your first-ever cyclocross event.

Even if you've done other types of races such as mountain bike, road or triathlon events, you'll quickly find that CX is a different beast. The good news is that there are some things you can do to make your initial cyclocross experience better.


Let's start with training.  Although three weeks isn't long enough to significantly improve your fitness if you've spent the summer doing easy social rides, you can develop skills and start upping your fitness over the next few weeks. Three workouts that will make you faster (or at least reduce the pain level of a CX race) are big gear accelerations, threshold repeats and running (yep, I used the dreaded 'R' word).

Big gear accelerations (pseudo sprints) are simple and can be done during a ride on a practice course or as part of a road/trail ride.  After warming up for 20-30 minutes, do 6-10 30 second repeats in a somewhat hard gear where you dig hard to get the bike going as fast as possible during the 30 seconds. Recover for a minute or two, then repeat ... and repeat ... and repeat.  The objective is to train yourself to get the bike up to speed quickly after a corner or after a dismount/remount.

Threshold repeats are longer and also somewhat painful. After warming up, push yourself to ride at almost-maximum-sustainable effort for 5-10 minutes at a time (build to 2X 20-minute intervals over time).  The effort level is best described as 'throw-up minus about 5%'.  These efforts will train your body to maintain a hard pace during the course of a 40-50 minute race.

If you're really feeling masochistic, combine the two workouts described above and do a hard 15-20 second sprint at every one or two minute point during a threshold interval. This will simulate the effort required to maintain a hard pace during a CX race with repeated hard accelerations after each corner or barrier.

Running is the third piece of the 'prepare for CX' puzzle and the good news is that - just like strong whiskey - it doesn't take much to really have an effect. Here in The Desert, most of the running you'll do during a cyclocross race is either (a) to the restroom just before a race starts or (b) short dismount/run sections over barriers or through sandpits.

If you're a dedicated non-runner, start by walking fast and then adding 15-30 second intervals of easy jogging followed by a minute or so of brisk walking. Wear good shoes, stay on soft surfaces and try to do your running AFTER a bike workout when your muscles are warmed up.  You multisport athletes will recognize this as being a brick workout (bike, then run). A good starting point is to (after a 30-60 min ride) do 5 minutes of easy run/walk and then 5 minutes of fast 30 second strides followed by 1 minute of brisk walking.

After doing these short post-ride running workouts for a couple of weeks, start combining them with cyclocross practice by warming up on the bike and then doing 15-30 second barrier, sand pit or uphill 'runs' while carrying your bike. This will let you combine a little run training with dismount, barrier and remount practice. Remember to mash the pedals hard after each remount to get back up to speed before coasting and recovering.

Let's shift the focus to race day and doing workouts that simulate race day. Having a good first cyclocross race means that your body is ready, you have a routine that you have practiced, your equipment is ready and so you're relaxed and ready to have fun.

Getting the race-day routine down is important. As a general rule, you want to arrive at the race location at least one hour before the race starts (sooner than that if possible). Get registered, pin your number on, air up your tires and then do a gradual warm-up on the actual course, if possible. Make sure you have a pump, spare tubes and water/energy drink in the car.

As a general rule, try to warm up for at least 30 minutes before a race with the last few minutes being several 1-2 minute fast 'jumps' to elevate your heart rate and wake the body up. Try to simulate this routine before hard workouts to dial in how long and how hard your warm-up should be.

Course inspection is important, so pre-ride several laps to get a feel for the course, identify good vs. bad lines through corners and to determine where you'll have to dismount and run. The pre-ride is also where you want to adjust air pressure in tires.  If you're bouncing all over the place try lowering the pressure and conversely - if you're bottoming out the rims on every bump add a little air.

As you pre-ride the course, identify areas where you can grab a sip from your water bottle if you're a drinker, look for areas where you might be able to pass slower riders and hopefully find those sections where you can soft-pedal and recover for a few seconds.

You'll also want to find out where the restrooms are - trust me.


Last of all, you'll want to practice your 'cross the finish line' move. Will it be a one-arm jab at the sky, a two-arm victory salute or a stylish dismount-and-run across the line?  Remember that whatever you do will be on social media a few minutes after you finish.

That's it.  The keys are to prep your body, prep your mind and have a good repeatable pre-race routine.  See you on the race course !