How to Prepare for a Cyclocross Race

Video Transcript

"MICKEY DENONCOURT: Because the start of a cyclocross race is so intense, it's really important to do a thorough warm-up. You know, you need to get out on the road in, you know, some nice, warm clothes on, really, you know, hit every sort of intensity in there that you're going to be in the race. You want to start off with a nice, easy spin. You want to do some hard sprints like you do at the start and, you know, a couple longer two- or three-minute efforts that are at about race pace. You want to do that as close as possible at the start of the race. It's almost like you want to do another start before you get to the race just so you have, you know, your body is prepared and ready for how hard it's going to be. Another thing that's really important when you're starting a cross race, especially when it's really cold out, like, once you start racing, you're going real hard. You could, I mean, you could almost be naked out there and be warm enough even if it's 30 degrees and rainy. But when you're warming up, you're not going that hard. You don't have as much adrenaline, so it's always good to have stuff that you can easily take off on the start line. So, you know, you put your race gear on under what you're going to wear at the race. So I'm wearing a nice jacket like this, and I can just unzip my jacket, you know, crumple it up into a little ball, either hand it to my friend who's at the race or whatever and, you know, get rid of it. The same thing with what I'm wearing in my legs. I'm wearing a leg warmer which, you know, just slides between my shorts and my skin. I can just take the leg warmer off and, you know, give that to somebody to keep warm. Usually, if it's colder, it's about 45 or 50, I prefer to race with something covering my knees anyway just--it makes them feel a little bit better than something that's loud and creaky when you're climbing up those hills."