fundamentals

Brakes, bar position, even tires, do they really matter?

Does riding $150 FMB/Dugast tires make you any faster?

Does pointing the ends of the bars to the rear hub or running them flat make you any faster?

For that matter does being able to get on and off the bike smoothly, properly and with style make you faster?

Does running unadjustable frogleg style brakes make any difference in winning or finishing DFL?

Nope.

None of that really matters.

Heck, the little bit of running people have been doing probably is just enough to ya don’t hurt after the race as much. It ain’t gonna win the race for ya.

If you can’t put the power down, if you can’t ride fast… well it no matter… ya won’t win…

Ya gotta ride faster than everyone else. If you are as fast as someone and better than them in one of the above mentioned categories you might finish in front of them. And in that case well, that’s good, but chances are the above skills aren’t really needed for doing cross well.

So big questions: why worry so much about it?

Because I can. Because I don’t have the skills, or time to make the really important part matter, the pedaling. I can do what I can.

I can try and race myself into shape, I’ve been given REALLY good advice. And I’ve remembered just about every piece of it. So if, if I get a chance I’ll actually be able to make something of it.

Till then I’ll worry about trying to wrap my feeble brain around the trivial bits as to why froglegs are so damn popular. Or why I bother wondering about the minutia of cyclocross. The getting on and off.

Here’s the deal. Riding a bike is riding a bike. Cross is more than just riding. Parts and set up matters significantly more in cyclocross than it does in road racing/crits. Even to a degree more than with a mt bike. It still won’t make or break your race but it gives the packfodder something to focus on. Setting a goal of looking good getting on and off the bike is a start. It IS something concrete that an overscheduled family commuting man can tackle. I can easily take 30 minutes a couple times a week to go out and work on the fundamentals. The basics that make cross different. The dismounts. The shouldering, the barriers, the running. Those little things, they are goals I can easily reach. That whole riding fast thing I have hard time with, sort of, well at least that’s what it is seeming.

Too many medium days as solobreak would say.

Well This week I ain’t getting much more than nothing. Monday dentist, today inspections… and now… no racing this weekend unless I head up to Amesbury. Damn.

And next weekend… same thing, can’t hit maine, can’t hit MIF’s Island. Only hope is some road race. That and it figures. The team tires are in. I got new knobs to use. Yeah still clinchers, and no. I don’t think they gonna do ANYTHING to get me to go any faster. Maybe they’ll give me a bit more confidence traction going into corners. The pressure is kinda tricky with the SWorks Baldy. Too low and the little knobs fold over and washout. And it seems that too low is a bit right around the range for me that is the pressure I’d run. Sitting forced to wait here at the garage is just helping to create words enough to make Il Bruce’s eye’s glass over.

I’ll say this, if you want to train on the bike to replicate cyclocross intensity/power, do 10/20s for an hour. 10 seconds of 5-6watts/kg then 20 seconds of nuttin and repeat. It’ll get your HR up and balance the whole longer sustained intensity ya might have built from road racin/riding. Granted if you can sustain those 10/20s for an hour, well ya can prolly hang with the big boys.