Cyclo-Cross

Cyclo-Cross PDF

Author: Simon Burney

Publisher:

Published: 1998-06-17

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781884737206

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Cyclo-cross is considered the bible of modern cyclo-cross racing, yet also appeals to mountain and road riders looking for an awesome winter workout and perhaps some fun off-season racing as well.

Skills, Drills and Bellyaches

Skills, Drills and Bellyaches PDF

Author: Bill Schieken

Publisher:

Published: 2013-09-14

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781937565749

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Every time you dismount from your bike you are either gaining or losing time on your competition. For instance, if you are a habitual stutter-stepper on remounts, this can cost you around one second each time you get back on your bike. If you are on a course that requires three remounts per lap and you do six laps in your race, that's 18 seconds wasted. Let's say you have similar issues on the dismount. Same math, 18 seconds lost. You are now 36 seconds behind a competitor who is equally fit, but gets on and off the bike more proficiently. Even if you have years of 'cross racing under your bibshorts, you can always make improvements to your game. What is inside this book helps show you the way. Skills, Drills and Bellyaches teaches the techniques and skills that all racers, from beginner to elite, should learn and apply to become a better cyclocross racer. It covers basics, such as what to wear and how to get back on your bike after carrying it over an obstacle, as well as more nuanced starting techniques and how to mentally prepare for your race. This book serves as a solid primer for new racers, as well as a means for experienced riders to hone their craft. If you master the skills and techniques covered here, you can go into the cyclocross season with the same fitness you had last year, yet achieve better results.

Mud, Snow, and Cyclocross

Mud, Snow, and Cyclocross PDF

Author: Molly Hurford

Publisher:

Published: 2012-08-20

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 9781937565350

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"Cyclocross is a far more emotional cycling event than anything else. I think it's because you're on the limit right from the beginning. It has more tragedy - mechanical tragedy, crashes, rolled tires - it's a game of mistakes, it's very much like a Shakespearean drama." -Richard Fries Cyclocross has, in recent years, become the fastest growing form of cycling in the US, according to USA Cycling. And the elite racers, race promoters and the cycling industry all are in agreement that there's no end in sight. But, until now, there hasn't been a book written about cyclocross in the US: it's past, present and future. There've been books on training for cyclocross, and Europe has their own ompendiums about their great racers, but no one in the US has taken it upon him or herself to write about the US greats, from Jeremy Powers to Katie Compton to the US Grand Prix of Cyclocross to the Cannondale-CyclocrossWorld team. This book looks at them all, from the greats who started to build the sport in the US in the 1970s to the juniors who are the greatest hope for the future of cyclocross. And throughout the pages are the stories of triumph, of defeat, of fun and of suffering. But through each of those stories, there is a deep-seated, almost manic, love for the sport and for what it means. Cyclocross isn't road racing, it isn't mountain biking, it's an entity unto itself and with it comes a unique culture that Tim Johnson, one of the greats in the sport, laughingly described as "unscented flypaper." As he explains: you don't know what you're getting into until you see it for yourself, and then you're stuck. Welcome to American 'cross. For a beer-drinking cowbell-ringing mud-slinging good time, look no further than cyclocross, or in this case, Mud, Snow and Cyclocross: How 'Cross Took Over US Cycling.

The Cyclocross Bible

The Cyclocross Bible PDF

Author: Alexander Ij Forrester

Publisher:

Published: 2018-01-19

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 9781999897215

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The Cyclocross Bible is a complete guide to all aspects of cyclocross, from selecting a child's first bike, through to training, technique, bike maintenance, and international racing. Included in this comprehensive guide Starting out Buying a bike and tackling your first race Technique All the key elements of cyclocross examined and explained: cornering, obstacles, run-ups, mud, sand, and much more. Equipment What to look for in a cyclocross bike and where to focus your spending, tyre types, treads and pressures, maintenance, and pit crew best-practice. Fitness Developing training strategies to improve your physical and mental fitness, and injury prevention, plus working with power data and analytics. Racing How to examine and interpret courses and conditions, choose equipment, select racing lines, and so develop winning strategies. Detailed guidance on a successful trip to race in the home of cyclocross, plus the cyclocross racer's bucket-list.

Behind the Stare

Behind the Stare PDF

Author: Geoff Proctor

Publisher:

Published: 2012-09-01

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 9781937565336

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Behind the Stare seeks to convey the essence of modern professional cyclocross-the players, the stories, the insights, the paradoxes, the pulse. The book focuses on the European theater, but integrates the growing American presence in international cyclocross as well. Using the riders and their ethos as a starting point, the story widens to encompass archetypal themes of character, ethics, ambition, and perseverance. Rather than a "how to" (though aspects of training and technique work themselves into the narrative), the book chronicles what it takes to reach the top of the sport by immersing readers in the lives of the sport's stars. By getting inside the stories and lives of the riders (specifically Sven Nys, Erwin Vervecken, Bart Wellens, Lars Boom, Jonathan Page, and Ryan Trebon), the story becomes universal, archetypal, and timeless. The objective is to bring the sport of cyclocross to the armchairs of American readers. With Louisville hosting the world cyclocross championships in January 2013, the timing is ripe for an insider's look. First person, present tense, episodic, and telegraphic narration along with strong storyline, literary allusion, and insight hopefully result in a very good read.

Spitting in the Soup

Spitting in the Soup PDF

Author: Mark Johnson

Publisher: VeloPress

Published: 2016-07-01

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 1937716821

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Doping is as old as organized sports. From baseball to horse racing, cycling to track and field, drugs have been used to enhance performance for 150 years. For much of that time, doping to do better was expected. It was doping to throw a game that stirred outrage. Today, though, athletes are vilified for using performance-enhancing drugs. Damned as moral deviants who shred the fair-play fabric, dopers are an affront to the athletes who don’t take shortcuts. But this tidy view swindles sports fans. While we may want the world sorted into villains and victims, putting the blame on athletes alone ignores decades of history in which teams, coaches, governments, the media, scientists, sponsors, sports federations, and even spectators have played a role. The truth about doping in sports is messy and shocking because it holds a mirror to our own reluctance to spit in the soupthat is, to tell the truth about the spectacle we crave. In Spitting in the Soup, sports journalist Mark Johnson explores how the deals made behind closed doors keep drugs in sports. Johnson unwinds the doping culture from the early days, when pills meant progress, and uncovers the complex relationships that underlie elite sports culturethe essence of which is not to play fair but to push the boundaries of human performance. It’s easy to assume that drugs in sports have always been frowned upon, but that’s not true. Drugs in sports are old. It’s banning drugs in sports that is new. Spitting in the Soup offers a bitingly honest, clear-eyed look at why that’s so, and what it will take to kick pills out of the locker room once and for all.

How Bad Do You Want It?

How Bad Do You Want It? PDF

Author: Matt Fitzgerald

Publisher: VeloPress

Published: 2015-10-15

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1937716716

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The greatest athletic performances spring from the mind, not the body.Elite athletes have known this for decades and now science is learning why it’s true. In his fascinating new book How Bad Do You Want It?, coach Matt Fitzgerald examines more than a dozen pivotal races to discover the surprising ways elite athletes strengthen their mental toughness.Fitzgerald puts you into the pulse-pounding action of more than a dozen epic races from running, cycling, triathlon, XTERRA, and rowing with thrilling race reports and revealing post-race interviews with the elites. Their own words reinforce what the research has found: strong mental fitness lets us approach our true physical limits, giving us an edge over physically stronger competitors. Each chapter explores the how and why of an elite athlete’s transformative moment, revealing powerful new psychobiological principles you can practice to flex your own mental fitness.The new psychobiological model of endurance performance shows that the most important question in endurance sports is: how bad do you want it? Fitzgerald’s fascinating book will forever change how you answer this question and show you how to master the psychology of mind over muscle. These lessons will help you push back your limits and uncover your full potential.How Bad Do You Want It? reveals new psychobiological findings including:Mental toughness determines how close you can get to your physical limit.Bracing yourself for a tough race or workout can boost performance by 15% or more.Champions have learned how to give more of what they have.The only way to improve performance is by altering how you perceive effort.Choking under pressure is a form of self-consciousness.Your attitude in daily life is the same one you bring to sports.There’s no such thing as going as fast as you can—only going faster than before.The fastest racecourse is the one with the loudest spectators.Faith in your training is as important as the training itself.Athletes featured in How Bad Do You Want It?: Sammy Wanjiru, Jenny Simpson, Greg LeMond, Siri Lindley, Willie Stewart, Cadel Evans, Nathan Cohen and Joe Sullivan, Paula Newby-Fraser, Ryan Vail, Thomas Voeckler, Ned Overend, Steve Prefontaine, and last of all John “The Penguin” Bingham

Rainbows in the Mud

Rainbows in the Mud PDF

Author: Paul Maunder

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-08-10

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1472925963

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Cyclocross is no longer cycling's hidden gem. Its rapid growth in the USA and UK means this intense and dramatic sport is exploding into the mainstream. With a season running from September to February, cyclocross is cycling's only purely winter discipline, demanding a combination of athleticism, supreme technical skill and ruthless tactics for the muddy conditions. In the sport's heartland of Belgium, major races attract crowds of thousands and have a carnival atmosphere fuelled by heavy drinking, ringing cowbells and pumping airhorns. Many top riders have enthusiastic fanclubs and are national celebrities – one even had his own reality TV show. On race day, Belgian and Dutch television coverage is akin to a major football match in the UK, stretching for hours with prerace interviews, pundits and behind-the-scenes films. In Rainbows in the Mud, Paul Maunder spends a season soaking up the sport's rich culture and history, and mixing with the obsessive fans, celebrity riders, and old-fashioned patriarchs of the sport. Following the riders – novices, veterans, American, British – as they slog their way through the season, he captures the spirit of this flamboyant cult sport, and paints a picture so vibrant you can almost feel the mud under your feet and taste the beer, mulled wine and frites.

A History of Cycling in 100 Objects

A History of Cycling in 100 Objects PDF

Author: Suze Clemitson

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-06-29

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1472918908

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An alternative insight into the cycling revolution. Have you ever wondered why the leader's jersey at the Tour de France is yellow? Where Graeme Obree's record-breaking bike 'Old Faithful' got its nickname? Or the role of bloomers in bicycle design? Find out in this absorbing and quirky look at the history of cycling and the development of bike-related design through 100 pivotal objects. Charting the journey from the laufmaschine to the Brompton, through the early prototypes and the two-wheeled toys of the aristocracy, to the speed machines we know today. Filled with fascinating photographs and illustrations, this book immerses you in the history of cycling – from the boneshaker via the bicycle powered washing machine, to cuddly lions and ball bearings.