1saxman

My son lives in GA and he just won his class in the 'Georgia Cup' 'Cross Country' a couple of weeks ago. As I understand it, it is not 'Cyclocross' but I'm not sure what it is. He didn't have the right kind of bike and got his trophy with his Trek Fuel that he runs Mountain Biking with. After the time trials on Saturday he put on some narrower tires and changed to a carbon-fiber seat post - he said he could feel the difference, and I ain't arguing with the trophy holder. He's building a Titanium bike for Cross Country and they use a single chainring with a rear derailleur. Anybody doing any of this?

caloso

I believe that your son won a mountain bike race on a mountain bike. Cross country (“XC”) is not to be confused with cyclocross (“CX”), although there are similarities. You’ll often see a mtb or two at a cross race, although they’re not likely to win. And occasionally you’ll see a cross race at a XC mtb race, although they are especially unlikely to win.

This is a XC bik


And here is a CX bike:




I just pulled these off the Canyon website as examples.

burnthesheep

That's usually only tolerated in 4/5 around here. I'm in 4/5 and have to say, there's quite a few folks who actually abuse the spirit of that and run setups where they can simply mow over the field in the given conditions. I can see where some cross courses that wouldn't be the case, but the one by my house that holds many events each fall..........yeah....a hardtail could really gain an advantage.

In other words, I don't believe for a second that a mtb is slower on many cross courses. There's a reason they limit tire sizes to 38 and 32 respectively for many cross classes for USAC/UCI. It ain't cross if you're running mtb tires.