First XC Race on Sun-What is your one golden piece of Advice

morgan.349

Doing the Southern XC Bordon race on Sunday (Open Category) - my first ever XC (or other category) bike race.

If you could give me one tip for Sunday what would it be?

ie strategy/riding /tips/what to have for breakfast! etc etc.

Thanks all

stubs

Dont go flat out from the start and blow up after a couple of laps. Really force yourself to take it easy for at least a lap then build up speed slowly, steadily overtaking all those sweaty red faced wrecks who left you on the start line.

Check your bike over at least an hour before you have to go to the line. Gives you plenty of time to tweak gears that were fine last night but for some reason have started clattering now.

For me breakfast always used to be porridge with lots of dried fruit and pumpkin seeds. Then nibble 70% cocoa dark chocolate about 20 mins before the off. Couldnt stand any of those sports shakes made of powdered chemicals that had the look, taste and consistency of wall paper paste.

Enjoy yourself no one will care what position you came your doing it for yourself.

njee20

It's gonna be hot, so drink LOTS. Don't do anything different to a normal ride, if you'd normally have a bacon sarnie, have one. I personally just have cereal.

It'll be a great course, usually very fast and flowing, no real climbs. I'll see you there!

streako

Dont crash. It could mean the end of your race, a damaged bike, or a damaged body!

njee20

How did you get on then?

I thought it was awesome fun, very loose, but super fast, no real hills, great singletrack, nice weather. Spot on, just how an XC race should be!

Sadly I ripped my tyre coming down off the road on the last lap, had to run that last bit of singletrack, which was rather annoying. Think I still got 8th Expert though, not a total embarrassment!

morgan.349

I found it very hard going...TBH it was nightmare!

Pace was much faster than i expected and I think I should have trained properly for the event - not just ride with mates - ie structure more.

Bike felt pretty skittish at times - always felt like it wanted to wash out on corners - had rons/ralphs @ 40psi which I think didnt help - what tyres/psi were you running?

I wouldnt normally class myself as a slow rider - or particually unfit, but i found the pace above me. I think I burned myself out too quick at the start of the race, and just slipped back and back. For much of the race I just felt like there was nothing in the tank!

I'm definately going to do the Chawton race...5 weeks to get fit and work up to the event properly.

What do you normally do to train ahead of an event like this?

njee20

Personally I'm always training, so don't do anything specifically for individual events. As a general rule just need to ride more and ride harder! Riding with friends is generally not conducive to good training, you stop and chat too much, if it's off road one tends to plod on the climbs too!

How much are you doing at the moment?

I was running a Rocket Ron on the front, and a Furious Fred on the back both at 30psi, until the Fred went bang anyway! To be honest when it's that loose nothing will have that much grip, a few corners were a real nightmare.

The first race is always the hardest, you'll know what to expect next time, try not to get caught up in the chaos at the start and set off at your own pace.

njee20

Results are up

7th in Expert, better than I thought, annoyed I lost a couple of minutes on the last lap!

Northwind

Bit late, but,

morgan.349 wrote:

If you could give me one tip for Sunday what would it be?

2 bits...

1) It's just riding a bike and
2) Remember it's supposed to be enjoyable.

brownix

Another tip is that if its a sprint start into a bit of technical singletrack, GET IN FRONT!.
Because on the singletrack no-one can overtake you and if you (like me) are better at going down than up, you can get a nice little space in between you and the person behind you. thats only if its a piece of downhill singletrack, if its uphill forget what i said