r/cyclocross

CX seems to have issues the past decade. ...Except for a few places, like Chi. In the meantime, Gravel has taken off and those bikes could easily be used in CX events except for Elites. I would think that anyone giving CX a try these days using a gravel bike with like 40-50mm tires would find the features and handling to be dang reasonable. The harsh chatter faded away.

I just did my first CX race in years yesterday and I only saw a handful of 33mm bikes. Lots of gravel bikes with wide tires. They should have been slaying that course!

...I also noticed some new racers not know how to air-down their gravel tires. They were riding pretty firm and bouncy despite smooth gliding on a platter being handed to them.

This was a popular race but pretty casual -- winner ended up on a full-sus MTB! Who cares.

Anyway, it seems like several kinds of popular bikes might have been easier than a CX bike to play on this course with.

I've been busy the last few yrs and outta the loop. Made new friends in a CX town nearby so decided to start playing again. Back 5 yrs ago when I last did a sizable race (before gravel killed it) I had a new guy ask me if it was ok that he used his gravel bike, if I thought it would work. People just don't understand? What kind of problem is that? Is it that CX is not communicating with the world? He had a carbon bike with 45mm tires and was "concerned" that his bike might not work. Huh? Dang, I'd love to have a bike like that! I'm still using my 2010 bike with barely enough clearance for 38mm. Cross is casual at the fun level. Doesn't anyone tell ppl this? Ride what ya got! My bike was fine, too. But it was funny to have a cross bike stand out as "old fashioned" at a cross race! ...And I was the ONLY one with glue-messy rims!

Date	Location	Series	Women's start	Men's start
11 Oct	Dendermonde, Belgium	HG Cross (1/7)	13:45 (CEST)	15:00 (CEST)

Main info	Official website, cyclocross24 race info
Previews	Wielerflits (Dutch)
TV	Sporza (BEL), HBO/Discovery+/TNT/Eurosport

The r/peloton Discord also has an active cyclocross community

Weather: 15C/59F grey but dry

Why don't I ever see CX using platform pedals but I always see MTB doing so?

As a road cycling fan for decades, I've decided it's time to get into cyclocross. Trouble is, I know absolutely nothing. Tried to look up an overview of what races there were, but the calendar I found was packed, and there was no way of telling which were the no-miss ones!

So, in short: what races should I watch this upcoming season?

Are we really getting all the best story lines to keep our sport alive in the USA? It seems like the podcast is really important. I know I love it. It focuses on a half a dozen of our lead racers. Maybe one or two of them go to Europe. Can the people really carry the sport? I think our media people understand story lines carry the day. But they limit it to our handful of best racers. [I'll try to break this into paragraphs...]

A couple other factors sneak in. I would say the venue is a character. We like hearing about the ones we like. The conditions also really matter. So we hear about those two story lines a fair bit.

But there's yet another one that I think might get short changed: the events. Our events don't always have our best racers but they have lives of their own. But we only hear about the ones that our national riders attend. Aren't there another half a dozen events that are amazing and have stories of their own? I don't dig into googling what events we have anymore, but I really appreciated learning about them back when we had a paper magazine. Like what about that junkyard race I think it was in Philadelphia? Now these aren't storylines that stretch through a whole season but it seems like they're important.

Heck even fan behavior might be a storyline worth more coverage than we've been seeing. What about the guy in the ghillie suit who used to creep around the courses invisibly strewing hundreds of dollars?

I know there was a movement away from hand ups and maybe costumes in the attempt to make our sport more serious 15 years ago. But times change. Is the serious way the best way to bring it back?

How much do you pay for your local cyclocross races? Are some fields more expensive due to payouts/prizes? Along with that, do you offer USAC or non-sanctioned races (since that usually impacts costs)? Are juniors, women, and/or newbs free or reduced cost?

Just curious what you pay to race, thanks!

Curious to get people’s thought on this. I have a Crux 5 gravel bike with a wheelbase of 1057mm. Pretty long by CX standards. How much does having a shorter wheelbase matter for CX? For reference, the Trek Boone is 3cm shorter at 1028mm. Will the Boone perform better? Will the longer wheelbase slow you down through tight turns?

Bonus question, what about BB drop? The Crux 5 is 13mm lower (78 vs 65).