Cyclocross: A bike race where you get off the bike. LOL
=All fun
Sun Sep 13 · 9:00 AM
Southeast corner, at S Ogden St and E Harvard Ave
Free and open. The headcount just helps us set up the right amount of stuff.
There's no coach and no roster. We set up a few things to practice, everyone rides them, and people trade what they know as it comes up.
If you've raced for a decade, you'll end up showing someone a remount. If it's your first time on grass, you'll ask a lot of questions and probably answer a couple. Both are the point.
Show up, work on whatever you want to work on, leave when you're done.
Getting off the bike while it's still moving, running with it, and getting back on without hurting yourself. Mostly technique, not athleticism, which is why watching someone else do it slowly is worth more than any explanation.
Approaching an obstacle, where to put your hands, and how to carry the bike so it isn't fighting you. Once dismounts click, barriers are the same move with a hurdle in it. You are also welcome to try bunny hopping them, which will either look incredible or become the photo everyone shares afterward.
Riding across a slope without sliding out. Body position, where to look, and how much traction you actually have on grass and loose dirt, usually more than you think.
We'll put out some cones, make a little course, and ride laps of it. This is where the separate pieces start stringing together, and it's the closest thing to what a race actually feels like. Go as hard or as easy as you want.
Taking something from an outstretched hand without stopping, crashing, or dropping it. It is a genuine cyclocross tradition, it is technically not allowed in sanctioned races, and it is much harder than it looks. Bring something worth handing up.
Bring something else you want to practice and we'll make room for it.
Yes.
Never done any of this? Cyclocross is a strange sport, and there's no dignified way to explain it: you race a bike around a park through grass and mud and sand, and every couple of minutes you jump off, throw it over your shoulder, and run up a hill or a flight of stairs. It sounds ridiculous, and it is. It's also the most fun you can have on a bike, and the easiest way to find that out is to come do it badly alongside a bunch of other people doing it badly.
Been racing for years? We need you there. A session where everyone is a beginner is just a field full of people guessing. Come ride, get your own reps in, and answer the occasional question.
Any bike works. Road bike, mountain bike, cross bike, the one you ride to work. Knobby tires are helpful but not required for learning.
Southeast corner of Harvard Gulch Park, at S Ogden St and E Harvard Ave.