Woohoo. Finally. I thought I would never figure it out. The rest of this post is for those of you new to the sport and are struggling with transitioning.

First, go to cyclocrossworld.com and order Cycle-Smarts Solutions for Cyclcross DVD. You won't regret it, I promise.

Now, if you are like me and had trouble figuring out just how to remount :mad2: , here is some advice:

At a walking pace, bring your right leg up and place your inner right thigh on the saddle, follow through with your lower leg and step on the right pedal. Practice ad naseum. Now, the trick to getting faster is adding a left foot hop or "kick" as your right thigh touches the saddle. My thought, for what its worth, is that maintaining three points of contact with the bike is critical to remounting :idea: . Thus, your three points of contact while hopping/kicking with the left foot are: two hands and your thigh. As you add speed, your left foot hop will actually be a fraction of a second before your right thigh touches the saddle. However, the "airborne" sensation is brief and your three points of contact are back in play rapidly as you "merge" with the bicycle (to quote Cycle Smart). So, as far as I can tell the sequence goes:

1. R leg swings up toward the saddle
2. L foot pushes off the ground propelling you toward the saddle
3. R thigh makes contact with the saddle
4. R foot connects with pedal
5. L foot clicks into pedal

Good luck and enjoy the learning process like I did...

What are you doing practicing? Don't you know it's only May? You must be one of those a$$holes that makes slackers like me look bad come September.

Actually, we may have a serious infraction here. There's a code, it's about honor. If one schmuck starts training for cross year round, then we all gotta.

Ron

Exactly, just like the guys that started riding bikes all freaking winter and the other knuckleheads that rollerski all summer--only in season sports are allowed to be played in any given month. For May, this includes criteriums, skeet shooting and racketball.

Now, truth be told, I took my cross bike out the other day to give my overweight dog a little extra workout BUT I was wearing a pair of Carharts and no helmet, which makes it OK, even if I did snap off a dozen or so dismounts, but just fun ones, nothing serious.

I'm such a untalented athlete that I figured I needed a head start just to keep up with y'all. Besides, getting eaten alive every Saturday during crits is becoming a little demoralizing (Thus the realistic handle, CAT4ever). I gotta have something that I can work for and have some success...even if it is just remounting the bike :).

Anyway, I do love cross more than road racing...even if I can unequivocally say that I suck...All I want to do is get faster and smoother. I suppose there is no sin in that...right?

All I want to do is get faster and smoother. I suppose there is no sin in that...right?

Not as long as you don't get faster and smoother than the rest of us. Then we'll force you to upgrade while the rest of us continue sandbagging in the C's/4's. See, if we all suck, then nobody sticks out and we all look equally skilled. It only takes one motivated jerk to screw that up.

Some things to try over the summer in your practice sessions include:

I love a drill where you dismount, run maybe 4 steps then remount clip in pedal a few strokes and repeat. Vary the terrain and speed as you get better

If you are working on the remount, may as well work on clipping your foot in without looking, they make sense to combine and both require some practice

adding a turn around an abject like a tree, some bumpy terrain or an off camber all make these these drills more challenging

Finally, building in correct height practice barriers (2) spaced 12 feet apart (is that right, or 15?) and working your way up to hitting them at race speed will get you ready for race day

The only other thing you need to practice is your start and shoulder - un shoulder your bike up a hill, it's a pretty simple set of skills in all.

When I don't bother to practice my skills at race speed, I tend to make mistakes, trip over things and generally waste a lot of time on the course--hope you have a productive summer

Congrats on you new skill!
I wish I could do it at speed.... some silly adversion to falling.... For some silly reason, at low speeds I am fine but once it picks up to say running speed, I stink! More precisely, I stumble & crash....

Keep working, Hawk. Really....Try this: at walking speed, as you swing your right thigh onto the saddle, give a little hop with your left foot. That's what did it for me. It was sorta like a light bulb went on and I understood the sequence that my body had to execute (see my original post).

Also get the CycleSmart DVD, it really will make you better (I swear by it):

http://www.store.yahoo.com/cyclocrossworld/soforcydvd.html

There are certain people in life who are just plain old hopeless. I happen to be in that particular category. I think I stink in every sport I participate in... ball hockey, running, duathlon, & yes! even cyclocross.

Gotta have a sense of humour in these things!