I know it is still summer and most of the pointy helmet riders are still talking deep rim carbon this and clip on aero that but before you know it the CycloCross season is going to be here.
The East Anglian Daily Times League 2010/2011 kicks off with round 1 (of 14) on 12th September ’10 at Sible Hedingham with the subsequent rounds generally every weekend thereafter of which you can ride as many or as few as you wish – see www.easterncross.org.uk for further details. It would be great if this year we could have more CCA members racing - you don’t even need a ‘cross bike – mountain bikes are allowed.
As you are aware we have the CCA ‘cross event on 2nd October 2010 at Knights Templar School in Baldock (round 3) where if you are not helping it would be good to see you racing - go on, you know you want to!!
Cyclo Cross and especially the Eastern Region League is a very sociable and friendly sport and where there is always a good level of ‘healthy competition’ - the races take place on a variety of different type of course over the season that will suit all different types of rider from the technically skilled (not me) to the flatter, more open circuits that favour the more powerful rider (again not me) which last for 40 minutes to an hour depending on age/class/cat.
If you want to know more speak to me or Mark Wyer.
i think it is a case of what you feel happy with and how much you can be bothered to change wheels and tyres to match the ground conditions for each particular event which are obviously also affected by the weather. On my ‘cross bike I use Michelin Mud II which are 30mm wide which are generally good for most courses – used to have panracer cindercross (35mm wide) but went for a narrower tyre as i think 30mm is what most other riders use - you need to get a happy balance between "enough grip" and "too much grip"(?) - a lot of it also depends on tyre pressures – if it is particularly muddy I might run them as low as 40psi – on a grassy smoothish course (baldock for example) I will have them up to about 60psi – all you can do really is give them a try and see what suits!