Hi Kathy,

Do you pre-ride the Cyclocross courses that you will be racing? If you do, when do you do that so that it doesn’t mess up your training.

Good question. Yes I always pre-ride the cyclocross course that I am going to race on. Ideally, I pre-ride the day before the race if the course is set up. But unfortunately the courses aren’t always set up and ready on Friday which means pre-riding will need to take place the day of the race.

Riding the day before the race is ideal because it allows you to really think about tire selection, pressure selection, and practicing all the run ups, barriers and technical sections at speed. It is a good time to get to know the various course corners and practice them along with figuring out other tricky sections. Getting in at least a few laps in on course is imperative so that you can really dial things in - where you want to get off your bike, figuring out when it's faster to run your bike, how you are going to carry your bike, etc.

Most of the time the cross courses will be set up and available to ride on race day sometime before your race. But the challenge comes when you are trying to accomplish pre-riding in between all the other races that are going on before yours. It makes it tough to get that pre-ride in when there are only 15 minutes in between races so you must plan well.

What can make things even more interesting is if you throw some mud and muck into the equation (what are the chance of that in cross!). Now you really need to plan out your race day wisely because you don’t want to be on course preriding during the 15 min prior to YOUR race start. If you do that, then you will have a muddy bike to start your race with!! Obviously pre-riding on race day is doable if the conditions are dry or if you have a lending hand at the line to swap bikes with you right before race start if it’s muddy. But even then, that dirty bike will need to be washed and ready to go, heaven forbid you need it on that first lap!

Bottom line is to try to get your pre-ride in the day before and if you can’t, then know the race schedule for the next day and plan wisely!!

Good luck!

Kathy Sherwin
Velo Bella – Kona Elite Cyclocross Team