CX Thoughts

I haven't done a cyclocross race in about 3 years. It's not that I hate them... I just have a harder and harder time finding the time. Though the biggest cycling regret I have so far is selling my cyclocross bike last year to try out a full suspension racing bike. Nice, but no where near the same. That is a whole other story...

When I was doing the whole cyclocross thing, I learned how to do one of the most useful skills I've used on a bicycle; the running dismount and remount. The trouble is that I didn't learn the "proper" way of the cyclocross denizen, but it was almost as fast and missing the remount didn't involve a resultant high-pitched yelp. Here is what I do:

1) On the approach, I stand and unclip my right foot - feather the brakes to scrub speed, if needed
2) Swing the leg back behind the bike and over to the left side dangling it behind the left leg
3) When the time is right, a little ankle twist and round the left foot forward and land on the right - keep running!
4) A little lift from the left when unclipping should position the left pedal in the 9 o'clock position
5) Plant the left foot... keep running
6) Jump, run, carry... whatever you need to do, just keep moving forward
7) When ready to remount, have the bike next to you and running
8) Plant the right foot, bring the left foot up and stomp on the 9 o'clock pedal (this will click in if you are good) - this should give a forward push to your bike as the crank will spin down to 6 o'clock
9) Lift your right leg back (or skip frantically if you mess up) and over the saddle
10) Clip the right leg in and begin pedaling (past your foes)

The biggest difference with the proper way is at step 8. When they remount, they will push the bike forward, jump up over the rear wheel, pull the bike back and land on a butt cheek. If they are successful, they clip in. Personally, I prefer to stay with the technique I've learned.

On a side note, I will soon try to put some illustrations to the techniques I babble about. Like they say, a picture is worth a 1000 words. Plus, I can draw. It is how I pay the bills, don't ya know.