Nebraska Cycling News

Daniel Kelley cheering as Kevin Burke gets to the top of Hooligan Hill at the 2006 Nebraska Cyclocross Series in Lincoln Nebraska.

When registering for a cyclocross race, one thing you should know is your racing age. Racing age for cyclocross is what your racing age will be on Jan. 1. So, if your 2007 license says that your racing age is 17, you are 18 for cyclocross. (Rule 1A16.)

Let’s move on to category. For cyclocross, Category 4 is the beginner category. So if you kicked everyone’s butt last season, you should be upgrading.  Doing this is as easy as logging onto the USAC website, or by contacting your upgrade coordinator. In Nebraska, that would be Kevin Burke. The other thing to realize when if you are standing in line at registration is that there are no more half-price licenses.  However, if you buy your license in December, it will be a 2008 (yellow colored) license. Then that license will have your correct racing age on it. 

Now that we have answered some registration questions, it’s time to move onto equipment information. Despite the handicap, mountain bikes are okay to use, as long as they do not have bar ends.  With a UCI and national championship race so close to our backyard, we should probably also address disk brakes. Disk brakes are fine in a USAC race but not allowed in UCI races. This is a UCI rule and not a USCF rule, so it won’t be in the USCF rulebook. 

Rules Interpretations on Disk Brakes by Shawn Farrell, USAC Technical Director
 “Disk brakes are not allowed in UCI events other than mountain bike events. While last year this was an interpretation of the UCI given that disk brakes had never been approved for any races, this year it has been clearly written into the UCI rules that disk brakes are not allowed. Thus, if you are riding cyclocross, you may use disk brakes only if the race is USCF only. For any event on the UCI calendar, if you are in the Elite Men, Elite Women, U23 Men, or Junior Men, and these races were put on the calendar, then you cannot use disk brakes. If the organizer has also included masters events or events for category 3 riders, or juniors below 17 years old, then disk brakes will be allowed.”

When you go to a UCI event, there usually is one UCI race and the rest are USAC/USCF. So unless you are racing in Elite Men, Elite Women, U23 Men or Junior Men at a UCI event, don’t worry about it.
Next, we’ll cover the race itself. Cyclocross courses are anywhere between 2.5 and 3.5 km in length. The duration of a race can be based on laps or time. If time is used, then laps will be determined by averaging the time of the first two laps. Then “laps to go” will be shown on the third lap and every lap after that. Obstacles in a cyclocross race are a unique part of the race. A maximum of six obstacles that don’t necessarily require riders to dismount may be set up, along with one set of temporary barriers. UCI and Championship races may have two more sets of barriers for a total of three. The start and finish areas are free of obstacles.

Like criteriums, cyclocross has equipment pits, where a mechanic can clean your bike and wheels between laps on muddy courses. You say you don’t have a mechanic? Put your wife or husband, significant other, or office co-worker to work! Wheels and bikes can only be changed in the pit area. Most courses will have two pits or a double pit (one that is accessible from more than point on the course.) In double pits, there is a separate pit lane so riders doing a bike or wheel change are out of the way of the riders going through. 

When doing a bike change, you cannot advance your position without your bike. There’s no handing your bike off to the mechanic or dropping it as you enter the pit and running to get your clean bike at the other end. Also, once you leave the pit, you must go to the next pit for service. So if there is something wrong with the bike you just changed, you cannot turn around and re-enter the pit backwards. Also, exchanging wheels or bicycles between riders is forbidden in cyclocross. What you put in the pit is what you have to work with for your race.

Which brings us to lapped riders. Lapped riders can be permitted to remain in the race and will finish on the same lap and be placed in the results according to laps down.  In championship events, lapped riders will be stopped at the beginning of the finish area and classified in accordance with their placing without crossing the finish line. Before the race starts, you should know how lapped riders will be handled because the official should tell you in the pre-race announcements.

The use of radios in a cyclocross race is a big no-no, not much more to say on that.

Finally, read the USCF rulebook and the race announcement to know the rules are for the day.  It could make your day go smoother.

Now that you’re up to speed on the rules, it’s time to get out and race. There’s one this Saturday, Sept. 29, in Newton, Iowa, (near Des Moines). Information on the “Cross Out Crohn’s Disease” race can be found here.

Good luck this cross season!