Guest Post: Two Cyclocross Races

Editor’s Note: The following article was written by Robert Leone of the Knickerbikers, San Diego’s Bicycle Touring Club and board member at the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition.

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Cyclocross is the earliest form of off-road bicycle racing, predating the “invention” of the mountain bike by decades. I recently had the pleasure of riding to two separate local cyclocross races, the Spyclocross San Diego race on the shores of Lake Hodges in the San Dieguito River Park on the 29th of October, 2011, and the Adams Avenue Cross race on the 30th of October.

These are a blast to attend.

The Bikes

You can see from the image above that purpose-built cyclocross bicycles have sturdy frames. The relatively skinny but knobby tires are meant to grip well on a variety of surfaces, including sand, dirt, turf and pavement. The forks are massive compared to those of their dainty road bike cousins to account for rocks, potholes, barriers and constant mounting and dismounting. Cantilever brakes, like those shown here, are typical cyclocross bike equipment not because of their great stopping power (although they do have that) but for their “mud clearance” on wet courses.

Cyclocross may predate the modern “mountain bike,” but racers in the discipline have a tradition of adapting and modifying components, accessories, and frames to meet the difficult racing conditions of a relatively short (perhaps an hour or less) race with lots of obstacles. This tendency is most obvious among the niche-within-a-niche single speed racers, where pairing a top of the line road racing crank, like this Shimano Dura-Ace two piece double, and a specialty mountain biking part like the Spot chainring guard, as shown in the picture above, is not odd. For decades the UCI, which regulates international competition for cyclists, has banned disk brakes in cyclocross, but that’s to change in 2012. Disk brake equipped purpose-built cyclocross bikes, and especially good old mountain bikes, are often seen in more relaxed amateur races.

SpyClocross San Diego

This race, named for the race and series sponsor (Spy Optics), took place on Saturday, the 29th of October, in the San Dieguito River Park, just south of the stressed-ribbon bridge leading between Rancho Bernardo and Escondido. Unfortunately, the Kreitzer Bridge (shown above) wasn’t part off the racing course, but the course designers did manage to reference it with this plywood-surfaced obstacle seen below.

Although the competitors, especially those with cyclocross experience, mentioned a lack of grass on the course, the several heats provided a long morning and afternoon of daring competitive action for both men

and women.

One final note: The folks from Homebrewed Components, who make single speed cogs, chainrings, and other components in Escondido, were selling pints of Stone Brewing beer at two dollars apiece as a benefit for the San Dieguito River Park.

Adams Avenue Cross, Balboa Park

The following day, the Sunday the 30th of October, the course designers used the turfed acreage about the San Diego Velodrome at Morley Field to redress the previous day’s comments about grass, using astounding amounts of caution tape and surveyor’s ribbon to construct a maze of turf and obstacles section that would delight any bored pet rat.

The barricade shown just above was fiendishly placed just past the beginning of a short, relatively shallow uphill section with a hairpin turn at the top. Most competitors chose to stay dismounted until after they’d turned about. Below, you’ll see another fun placement, where two barricades in proximity created a daunting running section with the potential for tripping.

The designers weren’t content with a relatively flat and grassy course, either. They used the adjacent gullies to add topographical interest, and some flat-causing tree roots, rocks, and potholes to the course. The “Batman” style canted photo angle is a tribute to the difficulty of this little section of the course.

Outside of the narrow strictures of some regulating authorities, you can find a wide range of bikes competing at cyclocross events. In part this is because there aren’t that many cyclocross races in San Diego — why would you buy a new bike for something you’d only ride twice a year, at most? In part this is a tribute to the mixed nature of the event, where with some modifications probably anything that would roll on two wheels would be OK. At both SpyClocross and Adams Avenue Cyclocross there was at least one competitor who’d found some skinny-width knobby tires and gotten them to fit on a road bike (the two I saw were different people). Far more common were hard-tail and even a few full suspension mountain bikes. Kevin, from Adams Avenue Bikes, is probably straddling the outer limit for a bike that could do well on a cyclocross course (see below).

It would be completely unfair not to note the rider above, despite not fitting in with the aesthetic of cycling jersey and lycra shorts did pay honor to the series sponsor by wearing a large pair of Spy Optic ski goggles. It would also be unfair not to note that many people, especially at the race in Balboa Park, had ridden bikes to the site, with no intention of racing. Maybe of filling a pannier with “swag” or picking up some groceries on the way home, but not racing.