“Where’s Your Wetsuit,” or Other Things Triathletes Hear on the Cyclocross Course
““Even though you’ll get heckled, you’re probably pretty good at ‘cross as a long-term triathlete””
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been heckled at the start of a cyclocross race, or during it, by someone who thought that alluding to my swimming ability would be a funny or sharp troll, but I can tell you that if that person was a competitor, I was usually able to beat them at what they thought was their own game (eventually, even if it took the whole race). Cyclists really love to tease triathletes, usually about their bike handling skills, but the truth is that triathletes are uniquely positioned to succeed on the ‘cross course, if they remember some best practices. Triathletes often boast the following characteristics that make cyclocross…not easier, but maybe more approachable.
High level of fitness
High ratio of threshold to max power
Low max power
Good at pacing
Good at suffering (alone)
“MAD FIT”
No, we’re not in England, so we’re not actually calling you super hot by describing you as mad fit (although we’re sure you are). Triathletes are MAD FIT, as in, they usually don’t understand how extreme their level of conditioning is. Competitive triathletes, on the lower end, usually train 12-15 hours a week. That’s beginning to get into a fairly high amount of yearly hours, which does translate into a higher fitness level for triathletes. Sure, that training is spread out among three sports, so we’re probably not running sub-2 for 800m or putting up eye-popping wattages while “sprinting” (all triathletes “sprint” with quotes), but if you train a lot, you’ll have a high level of fitness.
Why does that matter? Well, let’s roll the tape back to this winter’s NCAA Cross-country championships, where Parker Valby of Florida dominated the women’s field, on…less than three hours of running a week?
Valby runs about 25-40 miles a week, but complements that training with intense cross-training, like using the dreaded Assault Bike. “It’s not like I’m jogging on those days [that I’m running] or that I’m cross-training easily. I think people underestimate what I’m doing. When I cross-train, there are puddles of sweat on the floor… Workout days are quality miles.” Some days she doubles up on the cross-training, and she certainly has one or two days totally off per week.
You, triathlete, are cyclocross’s version of Parker Valby (or you could be). Your “cross-training” is running, swimming, and strength. You don’t even need to do anything different in your running and swimming and lifting, since cross-training’s benefits to other sports mostly comes from that increased weekly volume. How much benefit crosses over is probably going to take us into the weeds, but it’s certainly greater than 0%.
If you’re a triathlete interested in cyclocross, put your last big goal triathlon in late August or early September. You’ll slide into CX season mad fit, and you can slightly adjust your bike workouts to get you the specificity you need for ‘cross.
Low Max Power vs. High Threshold (and Vice-Versa)
OK, now we ARE going to get into the weeds a bit. There are as many different athlete types in the world as there are athletes, but that generalization doesn’t help us train at all. For this particular thought experiment, we’re going to draw a distinction between the triathlete’s diesel engine and a cyclist’s petrol engine.
The triathlete tends to have a low maximum power. This fact is unsurprising. Ask any triathlete what their sprint is like and your first answer is likely to be a chuckle. Here’s why: if endurance is the determining factor of your sport, you are likely to train your endurance (which is why you’re mad fit, hottie). Since you can’t be all things to all sports, being good at endurance usually means your sprint sucks. So triathletes have a low max power, but usually a high threshold power relative to that max power. Your author, for example, can rarely muster over 1000 watts in a sprint, but his threshold is between 350-370, depending on how much riding he’s actually doing.
An athlete with this power profile struggles to be truly fast, but has two benefits that are helpful to ‘cross. First, that relatively high threshold means that they’ll be able to ride moderately quickly without blowing up. That’s a big help. Secondly, if you can’t make big numbers, you also don’t make big fatigue. Being able to sprint is a double-edged sword—2000w sprints are eye-catching, but they sure do leave a mark. If you can’t get up to those numbers, you can’t hurt yourself. So we call triathletes diesel engines because, like a diesel, they struggle for raw power, but they sure last a long time.
Now let’s talk about the cyclist’s petrol or gasoline engine. A cyclist with a high maximum power will have some strengths in CX: they will be able to get off the line quickly and get into a good group during the race. But that high power usually comes with a comparatively lower threshold (see above). AND that cyclist, with that big sprint, can go fast for a short amount of time but then will need to recover. Recovering during a CX race means getting passed, and having a lower threshold means you might not be able to maintain that same moderately-fast speed the diesel engine triathlete can deploy.
Understands Pacing
When your races last two to seventeen hours, you learn a few things about managing your efforts. Cyclists usually understand this, too, since they race on the road, but cycling and triathlon are very different sports. Triathlon is essentially a long, solo time-trial. Really the only person you are racing is yourself. When the race is so long, going over your prescribed race pace power or HR will only leave you walking the run, which is…sub-optimal.
Cyclists, in road races and crits, need to respond to the other athletes around them. A bike race really is a race, when compared to a triathlon. So a cyclist needs to train in such a way that they can deal with the changes in pace that happen in a race, while a triathlete mostly needs to learn how to parse out their energy throughout the day. A ‘cross race is similar, albeit on a shorter time scale. The best cyclocross athletes sit just under their threshold power or heart rate—on average—throughout the race, basically running out of energy when they cross the line. Now, the time scale is different (40 to 60 minutes versus 120 to, oh gosh, 1020 minutes), but the principle is the same. Triathletes may have a slight advantage here since their success in their other sport is about measuring out effort, while cyclists need to be able to deliver overwhelming power when the selection is being made. Both are useful skill sets, but if you’re a triathlete coming to ‘cross, we think you have an advantage.
Good at suffering…alone
Similar to above, but triathletes are used to suffering alone. Cyclists suffer, but they’re a more…extroverted and social breed. After the first third to half of a cyclocross race, you are likely to be grinding away alone, with a gap to the rider in front of you and then a similar one behind. Your ability to simply put your head down and keep doing what you’ve been doing (which is all you do in a triathlon) can come to your aid, here.
It’s a beautiful sport
The real reason you should try ‘cross, though, is not just because you’ll be good at it. As we just pointed out, triathlon can be a lonely affair, and cyclocross is anything but lonely off the race course. Teams set up tents like families, and a race day is a long, beautiful fun-filled day, usually, full of cheering and heckling in equal measure. Participating in it will improve your bike handling skills and might help boost your threshold ahead of next year’s triathlon season. But instead of looking at everything as a possible pathway to improving your abilities, why not just try something you are quite likely to enjoy deeply?