Fueling and Shouldering and Fit Questions

[NadiaMac]

pad- you won't need it for racing, and it will just get in the way. As you improve w/ shouldering, you will get used to placing the bike so it doesn't bounce around on the bony bits, also. I do use a pad for practicing shouldering- I shove a fleece hat folded up a couple of times under my jersey on my right shoulder.

water- i am a beginner cross rider in the sf bay area where cross is hot and dusty for most of the season. it isn't uncommon for racers to get bottle hand-ups during a hot race (yes, even in the C field, which races for 30-40 mins in our area)-- have a friend hand you a bottle, take a sip, then toss the bottle. As an alternative, for one race I carried a gel flask w/ a little water (in my jersey pocket) and took a couple of sips to wet my mouth on the hot race day. You really don't need much even if it is hot out. you won't need a whole bottle for such a short race, and the bottle/cage will get in the way

fit- see someone to help you fit the bike. my fitter kept the saddle position the same as on my road bike (same relative height from the BB, which is higher than my road bike) but i know other folks who have the saddle a bit lower than the road bike position b/c it helps them remount

[dianne_1234]

Adam Hodges-Meyerson recommends 1 cm lower saddle height to help "float" over the saddle on rough surfaces:

http://www.cyclocrossworld.com/Tech....ShowDisabled=0

Also 1 - 2 cm higher and closer for the handle bars, compared to your road bike.

[Alex]

I appreciate the words of wisdom. After fooling around with the fit yesterday (on the trainer), I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I went out today on a nice loop at a local park and everything seemed nicely dialed in. (My saddle is a bit lower than my road bike and I am a bit closer to the handlebars.)

Shouldering the bike didn't really hurt that much today, either, so perhaps I'm doing a better job with that. (This was only my second time out on the bike.)

After watching a VeloNews video online, I managed to teach myself how to dismount today. I must have been a sight as it took a couple attempts to actually get up the gumption to do it. Once I figured it out, I was dismounting all over the park. Of course, now I need to take a look at videos on getting back ON the bike!

Alex