How to Pass in Cyclocross Racing

Video Transcript

"MICKEY DENONCOURT: So if you don't get to start of your dreams but you're a strong rider, you're probably going to need to pass people. You need to figure out when it's a good time to pass. A good time to pass is when everybody is sort of on equal footing, where you got a nice, wide section of trail, where, you know, road--and if you just pedal faster you're going to get away from people. You can try to pass people going into corners by cornering faster than them and stuff like that. But that's just--there's so much risk involved with that. Unless you're a really precise and technical rider, you might fall. So I'm going to ride between those trees over there like they are a tight corner. I'm going to show you. You can take different lines to get by people, but oftentimes it's going to hurt your momentum. As I come around these trees, if I go wide and come inside like this, if this is my corner--so here I've come wide inside, if somebody is out here, I might be able to get pass them but I've wasted so much energy slowing down to get inside this corner that I'm not going to be able to get pass them. If I just follow them through the corner and carried more speed in this open section here that's going to the next corner, I'd just be able to maybe just sprint and get right pass them. So it's not motor cross. You don't have a motor like you can't just shut your bike down going into corners to get ahead of somebody for just a brief second. Because bicycle racing is all about momentum, if you lose your momentum, that person is going to stay away from you."