I think I’m doing Macclesfield Supacross, so I guess I need to switch to some mud tyres.

Any suggestions? No room for anything wider than 35mm.

Mick

Macc never becomes a swamp, it’s generally wet mud or just a slippy layer so you don’t need a mega-mud such as Limus, Supermud or Rhino.
Baby Limus or Michelin Mud (which are less aggressive than the originals) a good option and come in both tubular and clincher so suitable no matter your setup.

Should get away without full muds for Macc. Great course usually too. It’s not going to be like Broughton Hall yesterday, here’s a few pics I took – https://www.flickr.com/photos/186650888@N06/albums/72157720239893607

Did anyone watch the Val di Sole races yesterday, in the snow? Showcase for the bid to include cross as a winter olympic sport.

Thought it was an enjoyable spectacle (honestly looked awesome in parts) but hard to overlook the bogosity of it all. There’s a difference between a normal cross race where it has snowed, and a cross race at a ski resort. I understand how governing bodies are mandated to grow the sport, though, so feel compelled to pursue Olympic recognition.

I thought they were a couple of good races. More entertaining than watching Essen on the Saturday anyway! Visually spectacular too. Agree it’s a trying a bit hard to shoehorn cross into a criteria.

Morning all. Did anyone do the North West league race at Stoneyhurst yesterday? It was only my third race but think it’s the one I’ve enjoyed the most so far, seems like a great venue.

I’m in V40 and noticed the pack seems a lot thinner in Stoneyhurst and Horwich last week. Think there were about 30 in both of them but more like 50 when I did my first one at Stadt Moers.

Wondering if that is normal every season and the attendance fluctuates as the season goes on or is it just this year?

Yep I was at Stonyhurst (Excuses incoming). We helped set up on Saturday, a couple of us thought it may have been a bit on the long side, but with the hardpack sections it was just right and had somehting for everyone, it really was an excellent course in a great setting. I had my booster on Friday and felt like crap on Saturday and not fully recovered by Sunday. I had a great start on the front of the grid, but just couldn’t keep up the pace. Found myself wheezing when I wouldn’t normally do. Also too many mince pies haven’t helped. There were 41 in the vet 40’s quite a few more had entered but didn’t start. Could be all sorts of reasons, clashes with National Trophy last weekend for a start, covid family time at Christmas etc. 14th in the end, hopefully we’ll get to see Macc and Salford at the beginning of next year!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0zcapjk227nelo7/LAP_Times_Stonyhurst_V40.pdf?dl=0

Props to Tim Lawson for organising a great race.

I was there but only marshalling and course clearup. Great venue and think it would suit me so hope we can go back next year. Just finished a very stressful few weeks of house moving (waves to “neighbour” BenjiM) so was in no condition or mood to race (our belongings are scattered everywhere – I think cx bikes are at my parents….)

I would have been at Stoneyhurst where it not for covid +ve result. 🙁 I wonder if quite a few in the same boat?

Pretty gutted! Isolating but feel absolutely fine and looking forwards to the 2 remaining races in Jan

Sounds like it was a good course then?

@mick_r I remembered to ask how the move went on the last lap but I’d passed you by the time I did. Hopefully they’ll have us back next year as it’s a cracking spot and has a proper continental feel to it with the all the variations in terrain. The fact that it’s ina safe riural spot helps as well.

@bill-oddie hpoe you’re well again soon, the course was great, just the right length, suffering and comedy slide fests!

Yeah I really liked the course and the more concrete/hardpack the better for me as it allowed me to shed some mud each lap (especially as I’m transporting the bike in the boot of my wife’s car at the end 😯)

I made it down that steep chute/slope thing 3 out 4 times but stacked it on the 3rd time down I think?! I’ve got tubes in at 30psi though so probably not ideal. I don’t weigh loads so might risk going a bit lower next time.

I really like the racing and going to a proper event even though I’m pretty rubbish, but finding the cleaning a bit of a challenge, think I’ll need to invest in a proper bike carrier for the car if I do more next season.

Bill-Oddie- hope the recovery goes OK.

Rounded out the Welsh league with a 6th place yesterday at mountain view bike park. A beautiful day for racing and a good course. I went too hard for the first two laps and couldn’t hold onto 3rd. Legs and lungs just not up to it getting over a cold. It was enough to finish the league 4th overall which I was really pleased with.

Yeah I was at Stonyhurst in the V40 too, flying solo this weekend as the eldest has Covid and the middle one didn’t feel like it.

Despite not being much of a runner type I loved the course, got my best result of the year at 22nd and didn’t get lapped by the leaders, which is nice, although I did manage some very stylish dismounts on various sections 🤣

@mick_r you forgot to add polite heckling to your role at the weekend 🤣

Shedbrewed- that is a great result, well played.

Curious to know if you guys finishing high up the field specifically practice CX type skills or do you just get better at the style of riding from experience getting the race miles in?

@Duggan thanks. I don’t specifically practice cross stuff anymore. I had a coach back in 2015 and focussed on lots of cross and time trial sessions aimed at threshold improvement. This year my endurance has improved due to lots of longer distance Audaxes (200/300km) and also lots of hilly routes. I am lacking in my recovery from threshold spring efforts and that’s been noticeable in crit racing and in the cross races where I’ve gone too hard too many times. That’s something for me to work on for next year. Equally I’ve had mechanicals; rolled tubs, punctures and crashes which have dropped me down. My technical riding is ok but could be better sometimes and I need to work on my off camber mud riding as well as running. BUT I do it because I enjoy it and I don’t want to go too far and remove the enjoyment.

@shedbrewed, well done a great result!

@duggan Our club (Red Rose Olympic) run CX coaching courses prior to the season start at Moor Park in Preston. We’ll cover mounts/dismounts, cornering, off-cambers, starts, bike changes, blocking, running, carrying etc. Always helpful to keep polished up on skills. We’ll include breakdowns of races, share experiences with kit etc.

Race experience will always help however!

@duggan – I definitely recommend joining in club training sessions, my club hold them and when I used to attend It made me a lot faster. Plus it’s great fun in itself.

However, I find the difference between training loads in the past to doing very little now is 2-3 places (admittedly gone from senior to v40 during no racing covid year) and zero difference to fun. The worst difference is that @shedbrewed is now definitely faster than me 😂😂

Thanks all, that is interesting to hear. CX skills/training sounds great, I’m not currently in a club but not averse to joining one as I’ve finished studying alongside my job now, so have some spare time.

It is weird, CX on the one hand seems so accessible but on the other, there is so much to learn.

On the training front I was doing quite a few Vo2 max sessions on traineroad leading up to November/December but, it sounds weird to say, whilst I’m sure they did me no harm, I’m not really sure how much difference it really made in the end. None of the races for me felt like repeated max efforts but more like a threshold slog for 40mins.

Think next season I’ll try and show up with tubeless tyres so I can get some properly low pressures in and also work on faster mounts/dismounts.

Just caught up on Namur. I reckon they ought to get DCC in to sort out some of those descents.

None of the races for me felt like repeated max efforts but more like a threshold slog for 40mins

Feels a bit like that to me too.  I’m fairly sure that’s simply because I lack the ability to recover after repeated max efforts (it’s maybe one overtakey “burst” per lap for me, otherwise I’m just destroyed)

Raising your ftp is prob the best thing you can do for cross @duggan, along with skills. At least for most of us – prob at the sharp end or if you’re 18yo the races are a lot spikier. But V40 is way more of an attritional grind because throwing multiple digs in from ftp effort isn’t really on the cards. You get zero real recoveries on a typical cross course (no significant drafting at cross speeds, no big descents) so you can start throwing the Watts around if you’re mega strong.

Those VO2 max efforts in training are still important because they raise ftp, not so much because they represent the reality of a cross race. You do need to be able to ride the hardest parts of the course hard / skilfully – that is normally what separates riders of similar strength.

Well this has all gone a bit quiet, right at the peak of the season round here, so might as well resurrect it all with recent stuff.

The boys and I have been racing in the North West and North Wales leagues with good results all round – not so much for me at Macclesfield South Park on the 2nd Jan as I had Covid over Christmas so it was first race back / taking it easy kind of thing and the wheels fell off on the last 2 laps, but I still managed top 30, the eldest was 3rd in the U10 again for his first race back after having Covid over Christmas – at least I know where I got it from and the middle one was 4th in U8, but they’re both still looking at 2nd overall in their respective NWCCA leagues and the eldest is on to win the North Wales one too.

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Next up was the 5th round of the North Wales CX league at the Hanson Cement works in Mold, the boys did really well with the oldest coming 3rd overall in the combined U8 / U10 / U12 race and taking the U10 win, the middle one rode his new 700c wheeled CX bike for the first time and was 12th overall in the same race and 3rd U8. I had a properly good race in the adults / over 18 race with 12th overall and 3rd in V40 for my first ever – virtual – CX podium.

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And this weekend I went to the Manchester winter cycling festival hosted by Trek Wilmslow at Bruntwood Park where there were cyclocrosss races all day long, it was a superb event and a really good course. I did the combined Junior / Senior / V40 race and was well chuffed to come away with 12th overall and 5th placed Vet, plenty of tech sections, including a proper off-camber bank round the BMX track and very slippy sideway drifting in action on a lot of the corners.

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Not quite 21/22 season and not quite 22/23 season either but Cross is coming (again!)

CCXL Summer CX

Central League are running a four race summer CX series at MK Bowl. If it’s anything like the events they’ve put on there in the past it should be great!