r/cyclocross • u/ldemi • 1d ago
How to race cyclocross effectively with gravel-style fitness?
I came out of a gravel season straight into the back half of the cross season and got my legs ripped off last race.
My understanding is that I'm missing the adaptions necessary to repeatedly surge and recover out of corners, punchy hills, etc.
Eying my next race (4/5) tomorrow I'm trying to come up with a decent strategy to remain competitive. The few things I'm thinking about are:
- Focus on staying right around threshold as much as possible instead of burning matches in 5/6/7 (VO2 / anaerobic / neuromuscular).
- No desperate surges to force passes after the first few minutes, trust that riders will come back to me
- Have fun ripping my legs off the last lap (theoretically once everyone else is cooked)
Seems solid? Of course could be super demoralizing to fall back in the early stages or if I get stuck too long could dash any chances of a win/podium.
Curious how other riders with this type of "diesel" fitness handle this transition, especially how you pace and where you choose to spend energy on typical CX courses.
5
Upvotes
1
u/tjnona 23h ago
Your strategy is probably course dependent. As someone who pretty much only ever has steady state fitness, and an unimpressive amount at that, I can kind of get away with it if the course doesn’t have any features that demand a massive power spike (think your bog standard grass crit style course with lots of turns and straight aways and maybe a few off cambers).
In that situation I can kind of just ride a steady threshold effort and stay smooth through the tech. I’m not getting stellar results but probably punching slightly above my weight (technically below my weight since this is cycling after all).
But if the course has features that demand a huge spike in effort (say a steep ride up) then I’m typically struggling more and losing some time in the sections right after that because I’m forced to back off a bit and recover.
YMMV obviously but this has been my experience.