IAN FIELD’S FIVE TOP TIPS

Ian Field, five-time national champion and a coach at Dig Deep Coaching, has five top tips for roadies who fancy taking to the mud this winter.

“A lot of people are very fit or have the skills, but combining the two is the key to cross,” says Field. Here’s how to do it.

Train off-road

“The single best cross session is intervals off-road,” says Field. “Do a 20-minute warmup on the road, go to the local woods, set up a three to four-minute circuit with some technical elements and do race-pace efforts, perhaps lap on, lap off so you get three to four-minute efforts. Trying to handle a bike with a 180bpm heart rate changes things. And it’s enjoyable!”

Don’t go running

“A long run section is 15-20 seconds — that’s not a long run. So I’d incorporate a lot of my running into cross sessions, with run-ups and so on. The big thing is not being a great runner, but not having it impact when I get back on the bike.

“Very rarely can you win a race from running quickly, so I wouldn’t worry about doing 5-10K runs.”

Practise dismounts

“As a kid, during training, our warm-up session was to ride round in quite a small circle, dismounting twice a lap — you were probably doing a dismount/remount 50 times in 15 minutes. Do it lots so it becomes second nature.”

Get your tyre pressure right

“The biggest error for roadies is to turn up with high tyre pressure. Bumpy terrain is a nightmare at 100psi. Anything over 25 is unnecessary; it might be faster on the flats, but it will give you no grip in a muddy corner.”

Brake and pedal

“One of the best techniques in mud is braking and pedalling at the same time. It’s the same as left-foot braking in car racing — you keep the right foot on the throttle to keep power to the wheels for grip; at the same time you use the left foot to brake.

“In cross, you’re braking while applying power to the rear wheel to keep traction. If you freewheel on mud you can lose grip — so pedalling and braking is a little golden secret.”