| What, you may ask, is this "cyclocross"? I didn't know either, until my brother started doing it
last fall. It's actually been around for quite awhile. Apparently it originated in Belgium, where they decided that their
training plans weren't heinous enough, so they developed cyclocross. I believe it involved beer, herds of sheep, and lots of
mud. It has since "organized" somewhat in this country, but it's still pretty loony, if you ask me.
Cyclocross season is in the fall/winter, so as to
maximize the amount of freezing rain and mud on the cyclocross course. The "sport" consists of what look like road bikes (but
really aren't; more on that later) on what should be, to the sane, a mountain bike course, but shorter and punctuated with
barriers. In a cyclocross race, riders do a bunch of laps on the course, periodically jumping off and carrying their bikes
across the barriers. The barriers are often placed at top or bottom of a muddy incline, so one has to be pretty adept at getting
on and off one's bike. The mud makes for added weight on the bike, which of course is always fun. |
| Some people do cyclocross on mountain bikes, but anyone serious gets him or herself a cross bike.
Cyclocross bikes look like road bikes, but they run different wheelsets or else they'd be changing tires all the time. One
nice thing about it (one!) is that you're allowed to change your wheel during a race, so you don't have to bother with fixing
a flat mid-race. Cyclocross bikes are lighter than mountain bikes, and have the advantage of having better geometry than a MTB
so you can sling it easily over your shoulder while hopping a barrier. The brakes are beefier than a road bike's, typically,
so you can stop before hitting a barrier, or at least you hope. |