[Closed] xc race strategy

depends entirely on the race and situations you find yourself in - i.e. people slower than you in the singletrack, blitz the fire road to get past em, then recover on the ST, repeat till you drop them. And vice versa... just do what works for you.

Getting ahead on the places it's possible to pass and possibly holding people up in the places it isn't to recover sounds like a good strategy 🙂

Haha good point wwaswas. Didn't think of it like that.

When i raced a fair bit I used to employ the "go full-bore from the gun until you either collapsed or finished" it worked for me*

*I never won.

Jobless +1, although I've won a reasonable number of races in my time employing that technique.

"Ride like you're being chased by wild dingos" was the most useful bit of advice I had.

Start. Ride as fast as you can. Finish.

Works for me 😉

Im planning on my first xc race soon and just been looking at previous routes used on strava, going to head to the location and follow the route to see what my times are like in comparison so i dont get too disgruntled when i finish in the bottom 10%

Start at the back and overtake some people, or start at the front and get overtaken by (what will feel like) everyone 🙂

start fast, faster than you think possible then continue at a stupid pace trying not to throw up. finish and collapse.

start as fast as you can, blitzing everyone then pray you get a puncture or bike screws up so u can say ' yeah, i would of won but got a mechanical'.

Most people i know seem to like to say that

Cruising? In a race? Nope.

There is a limit to how fast you can ride a given bit of singletrack without crashing. There is no such limit on a fire road, so of the two single track tends to be at a lower heart rate than fire roads, but still not at a pace/level of concentration I'd call a breather. The technique on singletrack is to not make a slip/silly mistake and loose the group you are with, then pull onto the fire road and absolutely nail it and try to break your group. Races tend to be won either on climbs or really technical descents, everywhere else you can't really open up enough of a gap.

Agreed on the start - you need to go for it so you don't end up with a big gap to people you should have kept up with.

GB

People always talk about pacing but I've found that if you don't fly off at the start you never catch up

Fast on fireroads and slow on singletrack sounds like a good strategy to me, comes to me naturally!

First race.. Ride at your own pace that won't destroy you. Pushing yourself to 100%+ means you'll suffer and have a crappy time.
If you need to pass, ask nicely at an appropriate time. if you need to be passed then give them the opportunity when appropriate.
Accept that you may find yourself behind hopeless technical riders that hold you up through the fun stuff but ride away from you on the climbs/flats.
Second race... You get it now, push yourself more based on your experience from the first race.
Good luck:-)

First race.. Ride at your own pace that won't destroy you. Pushing yourself to 100%+ means you'll suffer and have a crappy time.

Err... That's the point? Otherwise just go for a ride!

Ride so fast that when you stop you are about to die. Hope that you have finished the race when that point comes. If not, limp around for the remainder. You'll have no regrets about finishing with too much in the tank.

Definitely pre ride the course on the day. Not quite as important if you know the ground but I always manage to find something I'm glad I knew IYSWIM It may be gear selection, it may be line choice but you need to find an edge in that crucial first lap. I find laps two and three tend to be more of a procession baring mistakes.

I'd say nail the fire roads for sure but if there's a tricky climb coming up in the next spell of single track that needs a burst of power, it sometimes pays to leave a bit spare to gain an advantage there instead.

I love racing for that adrenalin fuelled edge to your riding that I can't get any other way. I'm always amazed how fast I ride technical gnar when fifteen whippets are chasing you 😉

Cheers guys. I think I'm gonna go for the ride so hard I poo myself approach. Then find myself at the back anyways.

You will ride harder than you think possible. Going for a "hard" ride with friends my HR is 160 ish peaking at maybe 175. When racing I average 185 and peak at 195.

Use your energy wisely. In the single track don't sprint between corners if you are going to be on the brakes a couple of seconds later and always take it easy going downhill. You spend a lot more time climbing than descending, so freewheel downhill and recover so you can climb harder.

Good luck!

You spend a lot more time climbing than descending, so freewheel downhill and recover so you can climb harder.

Good luck!

yeah, dont follow that advise. If your a good descender then you can make 20, 30, 40 seconds on the downs. It doesn't seem much but it meant ( for me) i could ride the climbs at a pace i was comfortable with knowing that i would be caught by better climbers eventually but still feel fresh enough to give something extra to keep up. Use your strengths to your advantage

Err... That's the point? Otherwise just go for a ride!

Not much point not finishing a race or having a terrible experience and puking up a lung first time out.

After that I agree.. I leave it all out on the race course.

TBH for a first timer I would just try and go as hard as you can for as long as you can. What you can do though is take some care about your warm up so you don't do yourself any real muscle damage. Start at least 30 mins before the start and ride at an easy pace gradually building up to full race pace for a few minutes at the end. Aim to finish 10 minutes before the start. You could do this all on rollers but you look like a ponce if you do! 😉 Getting a good position at the start can really affect your final placing so try to get near the front if they don't have grid placings. Even if you are slower than the others they have to get past you first! Look what gear the other people at the start are in and put your bike in the same gear. Then when the start gun goes ride off as fast as you can for the first section before the singletrack starts. If you go off too slow you'll end up in a queue for the beginning of the singletrack. Most importantly remember it is supposed to be fun! 😀

You spend a lot more time climbing than descending, so freewheel downhill and recover so you can climb harder.
Good luck!

yeah, dont follow that advise. If your a good descender then you can make 20, 30, 40 seconds on the downs. It doesn't seem much but it meant ( for me) i could ride the climbs at a pace i was comfortable with knowing that i would be caught by better climbers eventually but still feel fresh enough to give something extra to keep up. Use your strengths to your advantage

OK, I suppose my advice was based on the sort of courses where I race. A typical descent is around a minute long. Those who sprint down them may make up 5 or 6 seconds on those who coast, but they then blow up on the next climb which takes 8 or 9 minutes and lose 30 seconds.

If your course does have long downhills though, your strategy may be different.

If your course does have long downhills though, your strategy may be different.

Depends: if you're a good technical descender, do everything possible to get to the front of whatever group you're in before it hits the tech descent. With luck, anyone following you will exceed their speed/ability threshold, crash or dab and you can gain on them.

If you're a lightweight climbing speed demon, that's the place to make your attacks.

Of course, first race you'll set off like a bat out of hell with no idea of pacing or anything but hey, have fun anyway! Main aim for the first race - try and catch anyone in front, try and drop anyone behind. You'll learn stuff about tactics later!

First race, you're only racing yourself.