Race Report: CX RD 3, Barnstaple

 UPDATE: 26/09/12 - i have just found out that i came 6th overall at this race which is pretty sweet!  

 Yesterday, 23^rd September, was round 3 of the south west Cyclo cross in Barnstaple.

I knew that the weather wasn’t supposed to be very good at all for this race but all week it had been pretty dry and I couldn’t help but think, it really can’t be that bad?! I woke up Sunday morning looked out of the window to be greeted by dark grey clouds and loud a spattering of rain on the window. Ughh.. It had started to get really cold this week. I just knew by looking outside, I didn’t want to ride in this dreary weather.

On the brighter side of things, I feel that I’m pretty handy on a bike, skill wise, and I also know, that most of the people riding are rodies. They don’t tend to be very good at cornering, let alone cornering on slick, greasy, muddy corners. I was feeling confident.

           I rocked up to the joint with no problems this week; I probably have to owe that to the latest iphone update, ‘IOS6’. Before on the iphone, you had to rely on Google maps directing you, which is always a bit of a struggle, but included in the new update is, in its simplest term, is a TomTom gps system. This was the first time I used it and the new GPS routing system is very good. It worked without fault. The screen stays lit up so u can always see where you are and how far away the next turning is. There is also a little man in my phone that shouts out which way to go so you don’t even have to look..

           I got out of my toasty hot car and it wasn’t very pleasant outside. I signed on and started putting layers of clothes on. My kit consisted of Bib shorts, low cut socks, an Endura BaaBaa merino base layer, race jersey, arm warmers, windstopper jacket thingy and a one of those sweet cycle caps that go under the helmet. I obviously didn’t wear all of this for the race; this was just to do some warming up in.  The cap and jacket came off just before the start.

               I ran into an instant problem with tyre pressure as soon as I started my first practice lap. The course was very soft and muddy which I decided needed a very low tyre pressure. I set the front & rear tyre to 25psi. I went to bunny hop up a curb and I thought I was going to die! Literally I have never felt so unsafe and out of control on a bike in my life. As soon as I put any pressure on the front end, the tyre rolled over twisting the wheel to the side and nearly throwing me over into the curb. Luckily I got away with it. The rear tyre was absolutely fine and felt very good. 

        I should probably mention that I’m running different tyres front and rear; A Kenda small block 8, 700x32c in the rear, and a vredstrein 700x30c front. I have recently started to not like this vredestrein tyre much and this recent problem has strengthened my view on it. I really need to change it. I find this tyre to tall for its skinny profile and the sidewalls can’t cope with any side loads at pressures below 40psi. It just really isn’t stable at all. Anyway I sorted this by putting the front up to 30psi and coped with the slight rolling.

         The race got underway and I found myself in the top 10 pretty quickly. The course was also pretty lame. It was basically a playing field with lots of corners in it, with one section that went off the field with some stairs to run up back up onto the field..There wasn’t as many people competing this week, maybe 30 plus people. Results still aren’t up as I write, so can’t be sure.

         We got into the first of the tight chicanes and some guy left the door open so I nipped into the gap on the inside. As I did this, I must have caught this guy by surprise because he jack-knifed and fell to the floor creating a gap between the front group and the chasing group.  I was luckily in the leading group. I was following them around for a couple laps and it felt like I was cruising pretty easily so I pushed forward, over took some people and tried to pick the pace up.  

          As time went on, the course started to get very sloppy, especially on the uphill, headwind section of the course. I started to struggle for speed on this section and found two guys closing me down. They both overtook me and I just sat in behind them. As they passed by I noticed they were team mates working together. I found the pace they were going at was pretty good and being sat behind them, really helped on the head wind section. The front runner off this 3 man group started to get away and I found the other guy was defending the inside line on every corner making it pretty difficult to overtake. This didn’t frustrate me as I knew that if I needed to catch up, I wouldn’t have a problem. I decided to bide my time and use this guy in front to keep me feeling fresh. The ‘2laps to go’ sign came out and I figured this would be the lap to bridge the gap that had been created. I followed this guy for about half of the lap, until it came to a straight, fast section where I decided to jump this guy and sprint up to the next. This wasn’t actually very hard and I was right with him in no time.

          Again I sat in behind the next rider for most of the last lap waiting for the moment to make an attack. I followed him around for about half the lap until we got to the uphill, headwind section, where he slowed right up. At first I wasn’t sure if he was out of energy, or trying to slow us both up to let his team mate catch up. Whatever it was I wasn’t sure, so I took the lead, constantly checking over my shoulder, watching both of their movements to make sure they weren’t planning an attack. 

        All of a sudden one of them attacked out of nowhere. I was very quick to react and matched his attack with plenty left for the inevitable final sprint. He got in front of me and started to pick the pace back up. This time, I knew it was just between him and me. We went through the tight chicanes mentioned earlier. Coming out of this section is where I made my attack, knowing there was only 1 slow and 2 very fast turns to the finish. I grabbed hold of the drop bars, shifted through the gears and got my head down. I passed him just before the 1^st fast corner. Whilst cornering, I had to overtake a couple of lappers the long way around making sure I was ahead before the slow corner. Nailed it. But so had he... checking over my shoulder just before the exit, I could see he had closed the gap but this was fine with me. With one fast corner and a slight uphill headwind finish ahead of me, I knew I had to make sure I didn’t fall on the final corner, which would have been easily done under pressure. I checked my speed coming in, not caring if he was right behind me let the brakes go and flew though the corner, foot out, not quite flat out, whilst pedalling one footed. I stomped the other foot back into the pedal, grabbed the drops tightly and hammered it home. I turned around just as I crossed the finish line to realise the other competitor had cut his losses and must have given up not long after the corner. I was well clear.

         This has definitely been my best race so far. I raced and fought to the very end beating a couple of guys who had finished in the top 8 the week previously.  I have improved quicker than I thought from week to week. And, it would be really awesome to keep this momentum going to hopefully challenge for a win by the end of the season.

I have also just noticed how much I have written and I realise this is supposed to be a report, so I apologize for the ‘race essay’... but what you guan do.

Cheers

Tubeless Cyclosross Tyres?? Do they work? Are they worth the effort??

 Cyclocross is hard enough as it is without having to worry about tyre issues. I want to get rid of  (or get to the bottom off ) any of those worrying thoughts and perceptions of tubeless in cyclocross. Are there tyres that can perform like a tubular tyre and at a fraction of the cost??

      So a few weeks ago, i emailed Schwalbe UK asking if their cyclocross tyre, the racing ralph would work well with stans ZTR alpha 340 rims as tubeless tyres. I only asked as their mtb tubeless 'UST" compatible tyres all have writing on the tyre saying the are and on the packaging. But not on the CX stuff.

Early last week Tim Ward - (Schwalbe UK) Got back to me and gave me some great information that thoroughly answered my question. I thought that this would be very useful to share with everyone, so here is the main part of it:

       
         'Running cross tyres as tubeless is an interesting question and one that several people are looking at currently including myself. I was running Rocket Ron 700 x 35C on the standard Easton wheels that are on my CUBE cross bike. It took a while to get them up and sealed (you’ll definitely need a compressor) but I could really feel the difference in the way they rode; much like a tub. The main problem with them is because of the smaller air volume compared to and MTB tyre there’s a much higher risk of burping the air out (which I did twice) and I found there was a very critical minimum pressure of about 1.8 to 2.0 bar below which it was easy to burp them. You can only really find this out with trial and error as it will depend on rider weight and rim set-up etc. Be careful if you’re using the Stans rubber rim strips as these can push the bead up a bit too high on the crook lip and cause the tyre to blow off better to use the yellow adhesive tape; but again the rubber strips might be OK with your rims – it’s all trial and error I’m afraid.

You’ll find it a lot easier to get an initial seal if you use our Easy Fit solution on the bead of the tyre first as this will help create and air seal and help the bead seat evenly around the rim. Kevin at BETD Gold Tech in Newcastle under Lyme is also experimenting at the moment and another good person to talk to. The next step that we’re looking at is to glue the beads onto the rim with tub cement (something some downhill riders are trying) to stop burping at lower pressures.

Generally speaking the sidewalls should be up to the job but you may find that the tyres don’t last as long as they might running them with tubes in. As long as the pressure is OK it shouldn't be too much of a problem and I found that without the tube in you can run them at a higher pressure for a given amount of compliance compared to running with a tube.

In summary and conclusion I’d say it was worth experimenting with if you’re so inclined. But the emphasis is on ‘experimenting’; if you’re worried about losing race position because you lose air out the tyre then maybe think again about it – I didn’t start one race last year as I lost the air out of both tyres on the warm up lap! So it’s important to state that Schwalbe cross tyres are not as yet recommended for use in a tubeless set-up and at present this is not seen as a proprietary method of use and there are no guarantees from Schwalbe in this regard; just so there’s no misunderstanding if you lose a race!'

Just got another email from Tim Ward- (Schwalbe UK)

Racing Ralph (allround fast rolling tyre)

  



 ' As for the difference between Ron and Ralph it's very much down to the course and the conditions. I think for most of the season in typical UK conditions the Ron, which is more suited to muddier conditions, will be the better choice. However, if we have a dry autumn some of the early season races could be on very dry hard courses in which case the Ralph will definitely roll quicker. In mixed conditions where it's not too muddy there's some merit in running a Ron on the front and Ralph on the back as is very typical with cross country mountain bikers.

 

Rocket Ron (wetter weather tyre with tread desiged to shed mud)
This is the current 2012 Model. 2013 model to be released later this year!

The new 2013 Rocket Ron will be even more effective in the mud as it will be a bit narrower at 700 x 33C to meet the new UCI regs and have a slightly revised tread pattern. It will be available in an EVO spec folding clincher with PaceStar triple compound and also now finally in a tub version with the same 700 x 33C size.'







I am looking forward to experimenting with different tyres and
pressure. Im currently waiting for my stans rims to be built up onto

Vredestein Premiato

hope pro3s. I want to put most of my testing on these wheels with the
Racing ralphs and Rocket Rons as this is what i will currently want to be racing.
in the mean time, i would really like to try out some other tyres and run them at silly pressures on
my training wheels that i don't care for so i can really give them a good hammering. Then i can see what each tyres positives and negatives are. i have some 30c vredestrien tyres that i will give it a go with for now.




I was testing the Vredstrain tyres at 2.0 ,  2.5 and 3 bar last night on my practice course running them tubed. (i weigh 66kg if that helps give a better idea. I imagine much heavier people will have very different results) I have a section on the course which is really tough on wheels, strength wise, but
they might not be enough of a challenge for pinch flats. including quick transitions from a mud bank across paths and jumping down the other side, tight off camber turns, and 1-2 foot drops onto a lose open turn into a double jump that just so happend to be there!

I was hoping to pinch flat or something so i know the limit but
nothing and this was all mainly done on 2.0 bar, i knew any higher
pressure would cope. i did notice that it wasn't very stable on hard
cornering at this pressure and i felt the tyre rolling over. This Might be when
i would expect to lose air running tubeless.  I would like to try tubeless setups
to see if i do lose air and how much. But if i cant turn hard and feel stableish at these
pressures then i probably wouldn't run them that low, unless its not a very
fast course. but i do like the idea of the tub cement locking/sealing the tyre bead onto the rim.
But surely this is now getting into tub territory as this would need multiple wheelsets.
Still cheaper i guess.


I have the Racing ralphs already sat on my desk but not going to use them until they are
on my new wheelset. But i do look forward to try some other tyres and find out which tyre runs best with tubeless setup.

Over time i will try my very best to test every CX tyre out there for tubeless and was hoping that if my
blog starts to do well, suppliers will give me tyres to test and review.  

Untill then i will need to get some training in and make do with what i already have.