Joe Friel is good, especially the bit about Vets needing a bit more recovery. If you want to get faster, it’s the quality of your training sessions that’s important, not the time. I’m 43 and it takes me 2 days to recover from Sunday’s XC race – if I don’t leave it long enough, I can’t make a quality effort and that can be disheartening as well as ineffective.

PS Good job on the last race!

Lots of different experiences here – I hope your healing is quick and thorough.
To add another anecdote to the list, I went OTB at the Three Peaks and broke mine. It was a clean break with minimal misalignment but it wasn’t straight. The broken ends knitted after about 10 or 12 days – it was such a relief to have the movement stop! I got on a turbo then, was road riding gently after 4 weeks and CX racing after 6. Walloped the injured shoulder into a tree a week later, winced but was fine :)
My consultant told me that if everything goes naturally, you get most of the bone strength back in about 6 weeks but consolidation and remodelling of the repair goes on for months and months after that. Age makes a difference – I was 39 at the time.

It’s the must overtake if someone is going slower attitude no matter what the situation or context.

I think this sums things up very well.

When gluing tubs, you aren’t sticking rubber to anything. You stick the glue to carbon (this bit works a treat) and to the base tape of the tub. I think this is usually cotton. Having said that, something like your continental tub cement is the nearest you’ll get to old-style solvent-loaded contact cement and that is good for rubber too.

It’s not the strongest sticky in the world – something like araldite might even be better. Faster-curing ones might be better as they will be less brittle once set.

I do the same 20km commute at the same steady effort level (Z1 or easy Z2) on three bikes, a hardtail with 2″ summer tyres at 25 psi, a CX bike with 33 mm knobblies at 45 psi or a road bike with 25 mm slicks at 90 psi. The road bike is 1 to 2 km/h faster than the CX bike which is another 1 to 2 km/h faster than the MTB.

I’d second the ‘fatter is better’ approach. Don’t put too much air in them either as overinflation can make the bike feel skittish. FWIW, I’m 73 kg and ride 25s at 90 psi, more like 80 if it’s wet and ‘orrible.

Fast Trak Control F+R. If it gets too muddy for them, swap the front for a Maxxis Beaver 2.00 and put another Beaver on the back if it’s needed. All run tubeless.

Thankyou kayla1 for your excellent post, just cheered up my Monday morning.

a Highlight for me was seeing a chap on a Cross Bike overtake me on the final gravel descent like i was sat still

If that was me, it was because my hands were too tired to brake properly at that point. Stupid cantis were packing up anyway.
I thought a CX bike might have been the quickest way, but it was grim on some of the muddy and bumpy bits and I was overgeared for most of the climbs – 42t ring may be fine for a 45 minute CX race but that’s the limit. Silly me.
A chap on a hardtail finished in under 4h20, proving that good legs trump bike selection.

I broke one a couple of years back. Kept me off the bike completely for a week or so, then gentle road and turbo stuff. You’ll know when you’re ready to push on to something more ambitious.
First few days were properly nasty – getting out of bed took codeine, paracetamol and a dose of MTFU but it very soon got easier.
I normally prefer to grin and bear it than take lots of painkillers, but with damaged ribs its important that you can breathe properly – that includes coughing. If it hurts too much, you’ll try to suppress the cough reflex and can risk getting a chest infection, so make sure you take enough painkillers.

eltonerino, how much sealant do you typically put in one of those new tubeless kittens?

Even in a relatively short XC race, the gaps between riders can be 30 s to a minute or more. Even if you spend a few minutes fixing something, you may not lose too many places. Plus you get an adrenaline burst when you start up again – enjoy it while it lasts.

Thanks for all the replies.
Nobeerinthefridge – yes. Better safe than sorry, eh?
bigyinn – if water had crept in there that’s possible, I suppose. The solution would be to ride the bike more often, right?
Damascus- they were bedded in by doing about 10 stops from 10-odd mph, then riding around in bottom gear with the brake on as hard as possible while still going round, then another handful of stops from nearer 20. At the end of that, there was a subtle hot-brake-burning smell and they were working brilliantly.
Trimix – wtf?!

I don’t know any more than what I already said. I don’t ride the bike much – it’s spent the best part of a year sitting around indoors doing nothing – it was so long ago I bought the pads I can’t remember what brand they were. I’m pretty sure they were sintered because I never but anything else. There was no marking on them either. Hmm, I may not be helping very much. Sorry.

A good FTP is helpful in bunch racing and 340 W at 65 kg is very good indeed. However, it won’t get you results on its own. You need the tactics and the ability to go very hard for shorter periods of time with limited recovery too. For example, in a hard circuit race, I’ve averaged just below my FTP for an hour even though 25% of the time was spent in Z1. There were 10 x 30-second efforts at 150% FTP or more, including one at 200% and 8 x 10-second efforts at 200% FTP, some of these only a minute apart.

It’s a bit mucky but you get the idea.

Having a bit of a technical issue with a picture. Please ignore me.

Yes, it will move and be crunchy and painful and you’ll get sad and angry, but with a clean mid-point break and little displacement you’ll be fine. One morning you’ll wake up and realise you can’t feel movement any more – that’s the sticky bone ends actually sticking together – and it feels such a relief.
My consultant said that bone growth and consolidation goes on for months, but 90% of the final strength can be reached in 6 to 8 weeks.

40 mpg has it spot on. I’ve broken both of mine, one at age 20 and the other one at 40. Both healed naturally. I remember most about the recent one. I kept my elbow mobile, slept on my back and felt the movement stop after about 10-12 days. I used a figure-8 bandage which kept the shoulder pulled back gently – that can help to keep the bone aligned. Mine knitted with a bit of a chicane in it but it’s about the right length, so now I have no symptoms or weakness.
I was back on the turbo, still with a sing, in 7 days just to relieve the boredom. Luckily, the consultant I had a 4 week follow up with was a shoulder specialist and cyclist, so I was confident in the advice I was given. First road ride at 4 weeks, then at 6 weeks I went on a 6-day training camp (Tenerife – highly recommended) and at the start of week 8 I was racing cyclocross again. Crashed into a tree at week 12, bruised shoulder but solid collarbone.

Good luck!

The Elite ones are pretty good. I’ve had a cheap Mag one for years with no problems. I especially like the way that the wheel is pushed onto the roller by your body weight, rather than any sort of screw thingy. This makes the resistance really repeatable. No adjustment is needed – all you have to do is keep your tyre at the right pressure.

I hope I’m not being contrary, but I’ve got a general question on weightlifting for cycling. apart from the arm pump thing already mentioned (which is already pretty good, what are the expected benefits?

Leg strength, yes, but how often do you run out of strength when riding? Isn’t it more common to run out of steam?
Can weightlifting help with core strength on the bike?

1 x 10 for general riding and XC racing (30 or 32 up front, 11-36 rear)
2 x 10 for big mountains, marathon and stage racing (22 x 38 and 11-36 rear) With setup, I’ve been able to spin up climbs that are a painful grind in 1 x 11.
As other have said, when you need those extreme gears, you really do need them.

What’s a ‘real’ reason? Isn’t it enough to feel yourself becoming fitter and stronger? To revel in what your body can do because you’ve trained it? That’s good enough for me.

That Trek is a bargain. I had the Stumpjumper and loved it. Perfect for XC racing and trails, great for just riding around – even did some marathons on it.

If the issue is the downs then I’d avoid out and out xc bikes

Probably true. I guess it depends which way you’re leaning – weight or descending comfort.

All the xc-type bikes mentioned here are extraordinarily capable descenders and will be lighter than the trail-oriented choices. You could always pop on a short stem and a dropper post.

The Specialized Epic is pricey but good and it will come in ok on weight. (My 2014 Epic Marathon is 24.5 lbs with pedals, 2 cages and the built-in tools.)

On Saturday afternoon, fully one third of the lap was quicker to run. the overnight rain loosened things up a bit for the Sunday morning races but it was just bad again in the afternoon. I don’t think I’ll be the only one with DOMS today.

Good luck!

Mine was a while ago now but I still use the skills. Not so much the specific knowledge itself, but knowing how to research stuff, be critical, analyse problems before trying to solve them etc. It’s a great confidence boost too. You look back at what you’ve learned during your PhD and think ‘blow me, I didn’t know any of that a few years back’. It can make you get less scared of difficult tasks in future.

PS, don’t worry about your viva. It’s stressful alright, but not that bad and you really cannot mess it up. Firstly, it’s to satisfy the examiners that you actually wrote the thesis. Secondly, if they don’t think the thesis itself is up to scratch as written, it’s to make it better. They grill you a bit to pull out the stuff you know but didn’t explain properly, find out what you’re missing and then tell you exactly what you need to do to make the grade. Easy-peasy.

Two hardtails (one 26″, one 29″), two tents, two people and a coolbox in a classic mini.

mcj78, was this the article you were thinking of?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/18/turkey-cut-islamic-state-supply-lines-erdogan-isis

seems like there’s a lot of opportunity to drop the chain in the hurly burly of a muddy cross race

I raced a season on a normal 42t single ring with a chain device – awful thing clogged up with grass all the time. I followed it with a season on the same ring but with a screwed-down front mech – that held he chain on fine. This season and last I’ve been using a narrow-wide ring and only ever dropped the chain once. That’s all with a normal road mech – 105 or ultegra.

I’ve just come back from a week in Andalucía with these guys:

http://www.vamoscycling.com/

It’s run by an English couple – he rides your legs off and she cooks fantastic food. Worth a look.

Often, the commissaire will talk about lapping on the start line. I’ll call in twisty sections or if it’s a bit narrow, but if there’s loads of room, I won’t bother and just give loads of room.

You were squashed against the kerb and you took a hand off the bars to thump the van?

If you’re going down, go down fighting.

But as soon as we got to a section with tight berms and roller bumps I found I could stay in touch by just pumping the bike and not peddling much.

That’s because they sucked at berms and rollers, not because you had a dropper post.
(I know this from experience of XC racing but sucking really badly at berms and rollers.)

Do they have the same (roughly speaking) set up as XC racing

In a word, no. Racing is split into age groups only, usually with a titchy flat course for the U8/10/12 etc., then full lap races for youths (U16), Juniors, Seniors and veteran categories split into V40, V50 and the odd V60. Race lengths are 30 mins for youths, 40 for juniors, vets and women and 1 hr for seniors. Several categories will be racing at the same time and you’ll often get Juniors, Vets and Women all going round together but set off at different times.
Don’t worry about getting in the way. Cyclocross courses don’t have singletrack so there’s always room for passing. The thing to bear in mind is that if you’re getting lapped, it’s your responsibility to give up the racing line to the faster rider but often, you’ll just hear a shout of, for example, ‘rider up, on your left’ and all you have to do is remember which left they mean :)

Glad you’re ok, OP.

the best way to stop people overtaking in these situations is make sure you are riding in prime position

Prime usually works, but not always. Yesterday morning, I was approaching a three-lane entry to a roundabout with traffic light control. The approach road, normally two lanes, was down to one with roadworks and the remaining coned-off space was far too narrow to allow a pass, so I took primary at 25 mph. A truck came up behind me and I thought nothing of it. At the end of the cones, 100-odd metres before the lights, I moved into the middle of the middle lane approaching the roundabout and slowed because the lights were red. The truck, a stinky three-axled behemoth with tanks and a suction arm for clearing out drains, pulled alongside in the outside lane and just moved over into my lane, forcing me to brake quite hard to avoid being crushed or pushed into the adjacent lane. I didn’t get the number or have a word as the lights changed and he drove off really smartly.
I’ve probably been down that same road close to a thousand times and that’s the first time someone’s done anything anywhere near that stupid and dangerous.
Vent over.

“All that stuff”, i.e., pit crews and bike washing, is necessary to be competitive at a mucky National Trophy race or the National Championships. If you don’t plan on bothering the leaders just yet or you’ll only be doing local races for fun and fitness, follow Adam Buckland’s sound advice. The worst that will happen is your bike gets a bit bunged up with mud and grass and you have to stop to pull out a couple of handfuls of the stuff. Hardly a reason ‘not to bother’.
Anyway, if you do start to become properly competitive, you can look to join a team with all the kit already. When I started doing big races, the local club didn’t have any pit gear but it was great fun to team up with other riders to share a jetwasher and pit for each other – the camaraderie was brilliant.

Good stuff! You’re right that it’s very important to be able to dismount, carry and mount smoothly. That way, you can still keep moving even on bits you can’t ride and you’ll hardly lose any time to guys who struggle on in the saddle. Watching vids of pro races is always good for inspiration and learning – check out the ‘Svenness’ and ‘likeaVos’ series on vimeo too, where there’s a bit of added commentary to give some insight into what’s going on.
Most importantly, good luck and have fun!

Fast CX bike eh? On a really muddy day, the fastest bike is the one you’ve got two of. N+2 is where it’s at for ‘cross.
If you’re racing, cantis are ok. You almost never need to come barrelling into a corner and scrub off loads of speed. Aluminium frames are fine – Ian Field was British Champ on an aluminium Crux a couple of years back. A spare pair of wheels is a good idea – a general-purpose pair of clinchers and a pair of mud tubs would be ideal, but a spare set of anything is better than nothing.