Discussion
Just received an email advertising the Salisbury Saxon CX, and to be honest the bright colours bold text has me interested.
Does anyone ride CX? How does it compare to a quick cross country race?
I've not got a CX bike, but it says you can compete on an MTB. Would a SS MTB be suicide? I'm not familiar with Salisbury, how hilly is it?
Any advice welcome.
FYI: I'm not competitively fit, but I'm not a wheezing mess of hill hating lethargy either.
Does anyone ride CX? How does it compare to a quick cross country race?
I've not got a CX bike, but it says you can compete on an MTB. Would a SS MTB be suicide? I'm not familiar with Salisbury, how hilly is it?
Any advice welcome.
FYI: I'm not competitively fit, but I'm not a wheezing mess of hill hating lethargy either.
This looks interesting. Thread hijack alert... I've got a cx bike that came with conti speed kings that were totally crap. 5 punctures in 240 miles. What tyres would the masses suggest? Now running bontrager something or others with some reinforced bit in it but they are more road oriented
ss mtb (sounds like a ship!) will be hard work but there will be others in the same boat and scalping a few drop bar riders is worth the pain. have a friend who races cx, he is in pain for days afterwards. the general consensus is if you dont throw up at the end you havent tried hard enough. you cant really compare it to riding xc, its faster and harder as the courses are often laps of smallish course
depends on the particular course but there are some nasty hills around salisbury... that said, you pick up the bike and throw it on your shoulder for most of them in cx so a good training tip is to get some practice at climbing steps carrying your bike. there should be some footage of the three peaks cx race on youtube but thats a famously tough event.
depends on the particular course but there are some nasty hills around salisbury... that said, you pick up the bike and throw it on your shoulder for most of them in cx so a good training tip is to get some practice at climbing steps carrying your bike. there should be some footage of the three peaks cx race on youtube but thats a famously tough event.
Thanks Pablo. Last time I did a Gorrick I puked 2/3rds of the way round, so I'm quite willing to push myself a bit too far.
I emailed the organiser who said he did the route on his SS, and there is really only one hill that's not rideable.
So I've entered the mid length route, 60km. Wish me luck.
Sorry Rob, no tyre advice, except to say I'll be using a Racing Ralphs! Thread is all yours...
I emailed the organiser who said he did the route on his SS, and there is really only one hill that's not rideable.
So I've entered the mid length route, 60km. Wish me luck.
Sorry Rob, no tyre advice, except to say I'll be using a Racing Ralphs! Thread is all yours...
I did my 1st proper CX race on Saturday. I got battered! I would consider myself a competitive road racer type so plenty of fitness I guess. This was in another league of hurt. Totally unrelenting, you get into the red & just stay there. It's not just the pedalling, there's plenty of technical riding stuff to consider. Dismounts/shouldering/remounting etc are all skills that need to be mastered. Decending on a CX bike is another new skill to be mastered too.
I did throw myself into the deep end, I entered a National race & lined up with the National champ, I saw him again when the bugger lapped me! That said it was great fun & a real workout, plus it was varied & challenging like no road race. I'm gonna do plenty thru the winter to keep some form & just have a blast. Great fun & if youre thinking about having a go...do it.
You can race on a MTB but on Saturday the MTB guys were all lapped very quickly, if you want to be competitive I guess you'll need a CX bike. If it's just a bit of fun & an hours workout give it a go on the MTB.
I did throw myself into the deep end, I entered a National race & lined up with the National champ, I saw him again when the bugger lapped me! That said it was great fun & a real workout, plus it was varied & challenging like no road race. I'm gonna do plenty thru the winter to keep some form & just have a blast. Great fun & if youre thinking about having a go...do it.
You can race on a MTB but on Saturday the MTB guys were all lapped very quickly, if you want to be competitive I guess you'll need a CX bike. If it's just a bit of fun & an hours workout give it a go on the MTB.
....ps. The level of effort isn't dissimilar to a fast XC race, I've done the BC National Points XC races a few times & I would say the level of effort is similar. It's the technical aspects of riding CX that makes all the difference. I could hold onto the quicker riders on the hills & the flat but they'd simply disappear on the descents & the way they'd dismount & clear barriers was awesome.
Fourmotion said:
An hour's workout?!?! I'm expecting nearer 3! I love technical descents, and seeing as I'll have fat tyres and a fair amount of front travel I should have some sort of advantage. I hope.
I'll report back when I've failed!
BC races are about an hour duration plus a lap. I'll report back when I've failed!
Good luck Fella. Hope it goes well.
Edited by andySC on Thursday 27th October 12:22
Rob_T said:
This looks interesting. Thread hijack alert... I've got a cx bike that came with conti speed kings that were totally crap. 5 punctures in 240 miles. What tyres would the masses suggest? Now running bontrager something or others with some reinforced bit in it but they are more road oriented
That's bad luck. Mine got a bashing on & off road and I had no punctures.Gassing Station | Pedal Powered | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff