Cyclocross questions

[druien]

Hey guys so the cyclocross season is coming up, and Im gonna give it a shot this year. never done it before so I don't really know what to expect. So i was wondering if you guys could help me out with some tips, ways to practice, what to maybe expect or any good area's around the QC that would be good to train at. anything will be greatly appreciated!

[greenfast]

Check with the guys from DICE and Healthy Habits and see if they do any weekly cross practices. I know here in Cedar Rapids we have them Tuesday and Thursday nights at our on park and have a guy that brings barriers he made up for dismounting and remounting practice, and he have a huge stair set we run up. Best advice I can give is to try your first race, and see where you need to improve and go from there, go out to a local park and ride around on grass for an hour, find some off-camber turns and take them faster each time. Also dismounts and remounts are key to not losing time, once you do them often it will look like this that is me from Psyclofest last year in the Quad Cities and here it is in video form http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0Xn3WASEW4

[druien]

Thanks very much! I'll defiantly check into that

[Vibrato]

Ride the smooth doubletrack until you get to something that looks fun, then get off and walk around it? Yeeeaahhh, man- I just don't know...

Lots of people sure have fun doing them and it looks like a dood could get into really good shape doing it, too!

[greenfast]

Noone walks around it, you jump over it at high speed ;) I know the sport isn't for everyone but is a great way to stay in shape into the fall and always a great time to hang out with friends and have some beers

[druien]

I've got a couple barriers built to practice with now, and just down the street is a park that has some good stairs/hills to practice running up. So I'm going to work that into some gravel rides. And hope it works. Looks like the unclipping an hopping on is the biggest time breaker.

[Russhole]

I thought these looked fun till I tried a dismount. I slowed way down and tried to jump off and unclip at the same time. When I almost face planted, think I let out some words not fit for the forum and decided it wasn't for me.

I also hate the cow bells! Stop ringing those stupid bells!!!