Ticket to ride, brown line highway
Tell all your friends, they can go my way
Pay your toll, sell your soul
Pound-for-pound costs more than gold
Freeze! Rock! Freeze! Rock!
Was Grandmaster Flash talking about Cyclocross?
@jShort asked the following question about line choice:
“How do I determine the optimal line ? How do I know I am taking it? I feel like I am, but what if I am just lying to myself and overestimating my skill?”
In my opinion it’s THE question because if you 1) pick fast lines and 2) have good cornering technique, free watts be raining down on you. Today we will cover picking fast lines. Cornering deserves a thread or two on its own.
Simple Answer: The simplest answer is that the best line is the one that gets you through the turn with the least amount of energy and the highest exit speed. That is to say, there isn’t typically one optimal line. The optimal line may be different for each situation, each person, each lap, etc...
The Racing Line: In auto racing, there is an optimal line (i.e. “the racing line”) that maximizes overall speed through a corner. It typically involves maximizing the turn radius through the corner by setting up wide, hitting the apex and exiting wide. Depending on the type of corner, whether single apex, double apex, the line will change. As @gtluke likes to point out, if you want to learn racing lines, play Gran Turismo.
But there are lots of reasons you might not want to ride the racing line in a cross race.
The Cyclocross line Part 1: We are Not Cars. Cars do not get tired. While it is true that the optimal racing line is often the one that yields the highest exit speed, unlike cars we do not have unlimited ability to accelerate out of every corner. Exit speed should be your #1 consideration. Higher exit speed means fewer watts you have to put out and you save matches to burn when you need them.
Corrolary: If you crash, your exit speed is zero. Hence, the best Cyclocross line is the one that keeps the rubber side down
The Cyclocross line Part 2: Find the traction. Cross courses are not auto tracks. We ride on mixed surfaces, there are bumps and roots and small undulations in the corners. Conditions change throughout the day—grass becomes dirt, ruts form, hardpack gets loose, etc… Cyclocross line choice means taking these factors into account and adapting the line choice to fit the situation. You will often see riders riding at the edge of the brown stripe where the a bit of green grass provides a little more traction.
4: The Cyclocross Line Part 3: Races are dynamic. Be Smart. Your line choice should depend on the race situation. There will be situations where the smart line is not the racing line. Some examples:
First lap, heavy traffic, you’ll want the line that gets you through the inevitable pile-up that you already knew was going to happen (right?).
The Fighting-for-position-laps: Chopers gonna chop. Sometimes you may not want to take a Wide-Apex-Wide racing line because it invites other racers to slide up on the inside of the turn and chop you. Setting up less wide can close the door on choppers.
Setting up for the pass. A great way to pass people in traffic is to be faster on the gas coming out of a corner and make the pass on the inside. Instead of hitting the racing line, set up Wide, apex late and duck inside after the apex as the person in front of you goes wide to finish her/his turn. Some people call this "squaring off" the turn
The Cyclocross Line Part 4: Go off script.
Get creative.Picking the optimal racing line isn’t hard but so many lower level racers just don’t do it well. The brown line that gets burned into a course by Cat 4 & 5 races early in the day is incriminating evidence. Don’t be a sheep. Pick your own lines. Remember: Brown Lines (Don’t Do It)--don't count on the brown line being the best line.
Sometimes the best line is the one that nobody else sees. Start seeing those. Listen to the CXHairs interview wih Sven Nys. It's really really really good. If you are short on time just watch the video companion to the inverview (link below). If you are really short on time, FFW to 12:54. Sven demonstrates how a completely different line allows him to exit a turn with higher speed, find better traction and make passing easier at the World Championship race in Zolder last year.
Conclusion: Find your inner Sven. Start trying to see different lines and test them out. Use your course inspection time (don't call it pre-riding) to look critically at the lines. Get off your bike, look at the surface, duck the tape & try re-riding he same corner with a different line. Keep trying different lines until you unlock the free watts. Warmup on your trainer--use course inspection time to be a detective. Keep experimenting until you get it right.
The double switchback off-camber turn at Zolder (World Cup & World Champ venue) is the best cyclocross feature in the world. It almost always plays a huge role in the outcome of the race. Last year it was the turn in which Mathieu Van der Poel put his foot through Wout Van Aert's front wheel. In this Svennes video, he tries 5 or 6 different lines through the section until he finally get it dialed and delivers the final blow to Niels Albert.
Tell all your friends, they can go my way
Pay your toll, sell your soul
Pound-for-pound costs more than gold
Freeze! Rock! Freeze! Rock!
Was Grandmaster Flash talking about Cyclocross?
@jShort asked the following question about line choice:
“How do I determine the optimal line ? How do I know I am taking it? I feel like I am, but what if I am just lying to myself and overestimating my skill?”
In my opinion it’s THE question because if you 1) pick fast lines and 2) have good cornering technique, free watts be raining down on you. Today we will cover picking fast lines. Cornering deserves a thread or two on its own.
Simple Answer: The simplest answer is that the best line is the one that gets you through the turn with the least amount of energy and the highest exit speed. That is to say, there isn’t typically one optimal line. The optimal line may be different for each situation, each person, each lap, etc...
The Racing Line: In auto racing, there is an optimal line (i.e. “the racing line”) that maximizes overall speed through a corner. It typically involves maximizing the turn radius through the corner by setting up wide, hitting the apex and exiting wide. Depending on the type of corner, whether single apex, double apex, the line will change. As @gtluke likes to point out, if you want to learn racing lines, play Gran Turismo.
But there are lots of reasons you might not want to ride the racing line in a cross race.
The Cyclocross line Part 1: We are Not Cars. Cars do not get tired. While it is true that the optimal racing line is often the one that yields the highest exit speed, unlike cars we do not have unlimited ability to accelerate out of every corner. Exit speed should be your #1 consideration. Higher exit speed means fewer watts you have to put out and you save matches to burn when you need them.
Corrolary: If you crash, your exit speed is zero. Hence, the best Cyclocross line is the one that keeps the rubber side down
The Cyclocross line Part 2: Find the traction. Cross courses are not auto tracks. We ride on mixed surfaces, there are bumps and roots and small undulations in the corners. Conditions change throughout the day—grass becomes dirt, ruts form, hardpack gets loose, etc… Cyclocross line choice means taking these factors into account and adapting the line choice to fit the situation. You will often see riders riding at the edge of the brown stripe where the a bit of green grass provides a little more traction.
4: The Cyclocross Line Part 3: Races are dynamic. Be Smart. Your line choice should depend on the race situation. There will be situations where the smart line is not the racing line. Some examples:
First lap, heavy traffic, you’ll want the line that gets you through the inevitable pile-up that you already knew was going to happen (right?).
The Fighting-for-position-laps: Chopers gonna chop. Sometimes you may not want to take a Wide-Apex-Wide racing line because it invites other racers to slide up on the inside of the turn and chop you. Setting up less wide can close the door on choppers.
Setting up for the pass. A great way to pass people in traffic is to be faster on the gas coming out of a corner and make the pass on the inside. Instead of hitting the racing line, set up Wide, apex late and duck inside after the apex as the person in front of you goes wide to finish her/his turn. Some people call this "squaring off" the turn
The Cyclocross Line Part 4: Go off script.
Get creative.Picking the optimal racing line isn’t hard but so many lower level racers just don’t do it well. The brown line that gets burned into a course by Cat 4 & 5 races early in the day is incriminating evidence. Don’t be a sheep. Pick your own lines. Remember: Brown Lines (Don’t Do It)--don't count on the brown line being the best line.
Sometimes the best line is the one that nobody else sees. Start seeing those. Listen to the CXHairs interview wih Sven Nys. It's really really really good. If you are short on time just watch the video companion to the inverview (link below). If you are really short on time, FFW to 12:54. Sven demonstrates how a completely different line allows him to exit a turn with higher speed, find better traction and make passing easier at the World Championship race in Zolder last year.
Conclusion: Find your inner Sven. Start trying to see different lines and test them out. Use your course inspection time (don't call it pre-riding) to look critically at the lines. Get off your bike, look at the surface, duck the tape & try re-riding he same corner with a different line. Keep trying different lines until you unlock the free watts. Warmup on your trainer--use course inspection time to be a detective. Keep experimenting until you get it right.
The double switchback off-camber turn at Zolder (World Cup & World Champ venue) is the best cyclocross feature in the world. It almost always plays a huge role in the outcome of the race. Last year it was the turn in which Mathieu Van der Poel put his foot through Wout Van Aert's front wheel. In this Svennes video, he tries 5 or 6 different lines through the section until he finally get it dialed and delivers the final blow to Niels Albert.