- [Oliver] Just how good
are the world's best cross riders?
And how difficult is it
to ride a pro-cyclecross course?
Well, I've come to the capital of cross,
Belgium to find out first hand with the help
of GCN's resident cross guru Jeremy Powers,
but, first allow me to just give you some context
as to my cross background, or lack of it.
(intense music)
(record scratch)
I'm an experienced road cyclist.
I've clocked up thousands of hours road riding
in all conditions.
I've done road races and somehow,
I've even managed to win a few.
However, I've never done a cross race.
In fact, I know absolutely nothing about cross.
I'm a total newb, so when our resident cross Jedi master
Jeremy Powers invited me along to have a go at riding
the Zonhoven course in Belgium,
Belgium being the cross capital of the world,
I thought, why not, let's give it a go.
How hard could it actually be?
It's just like riding around in a field,
and Belgium's like flat, plus Powers told me that
there's going to be frites, waffles, chocolate, and beer.
I'm mainly here for that.
- [Powers] Firstly, for the uninitiated, Zonhoven,
Belgium is home to one of the rounds of the super
prestige cyclocross series.
Which is like the formula one of cyclocross
where the best riders in the world compete.
Matthew van der Pool, Sanne Cant, and Zonhoven
happens to be one of the most challenging tracks
on the circuit period.
The riders have to tackle super steep banks,
filled with sand and ruts, and getting off and
on their bike, it is a very as the
Belgians would say, heavy track.
And the best thing about this,
is that Oliver has no idea how hard this is.
Which is kind of cool though, because, well,
as a novice, hopefully it will give you
an idea of how challenging it is, and through his hardship,
hopefully you guys can learn something.
- So where's this course we're riding then Jeremy?
- See that clearing right there?
- Yep.
- Right up here.
- All right.
The (bleep) is that?
What the (bleep) is that?
- That's the cull man.
The cull of Zonhoven.
- Human beings ride down this?
- We are going to be riding down this.
- Oh, God.
(classical music)
- All right, Oly so this is the cull of Zonhoven and
basically everything down there where you come in
that's like the VIP, all the pits, everything like that
down in that area, in that big field.
You fly up here, you shoot down, this is the
infamous drop, that big...
All the pictures are right here, with all the people
all wined along the side of it.
The course goes right down here like this.
Boom, big effort, Hercules effort up to the
top there into that upper section.
You drop back down, so you go back down that
second side of the sand pit where you see those lines,
and then you have to run up this side.
It's back down there to do some other stuff, but this
is the heart of Zonhoven.
- I just can't believe that human
beings actually ride down that.
- You're going to be one of those human beings buddy.
- All right, I'll give it a go,
but I think I'm going to die.
- You're not going to die, it's sand, its soft.
You got to keep your weight back.
You got to keep your head up, you got to look
at the rut, you'll be fine.
- Look at the rut?
I don't even know what that means, dude.
- I don't know, you're going to be fine, let's go.
- Look at the rut?
- Weight back.
(censor beep)
(pop jazz music)
(censor beep)
- Mate, I can't believe how difficult this is.
- It's hard.
- I feel like Bambi on ice.
Riding in this deep sand is like
nothing I've ridden on before and its really hard to
stay in those ruts or whatever you call them...
- Yep
- And like stay up right.
I really find it hard.
- Everyone has to start somewhere, man, and
I'll give you some tips and you'll be flying
down this thing like you're Matthew van der Pool
boom, zipping through, dropping down.
It's going to be good, I'm going to teach you some tips
and I think that everybody else that's
just getting going in something like this
might find it useful too.
- Right, time for a master class.
- So, this is what I'm thinking.
You, first of all, you need to get your tire pressure down.
You probably, what do you think you have in there,
50 pounds or something like that?
- About 90 PSI.
- Okay, yeah that's too much, we need to get that down.
- Why didn't you tell me that before?
- We had to come in here like a beginner
because you are, you're a beginner.
You haven't done this before.
- Right, go on then.
- 20, 20, 22, something like that, let's bring them down.
- Right.
(air hissing)
- All right and the second thing that you want to do
when you come into something like this,
because you come into it like this,
you got to think about what gear you're going to be in, right?
You don't want to be in your easiest gear like flopping all
over the place cause you won't even make it past
this first section to get to the downhill.
So you got to be in like a pretty good sized gear.
A bigger gear to get some amount of like traction
and not too high of a cadence, do you know what I mean?
- Yeah.
- If you're in too high of a cadence, you're going to
be like left and right, left and right.
So you want to be in like a mid range gear here
to get the momentum and then you want to get the bike
away from you, as far as you can.
Push it out in front of you, get it away.
Now, you got to pick your head up.
A lot of riders, the first thing they do wrong,
they're looking right here, where they're trying to go
trying to follow the thing like that.
It's a bad look, why?
Because, the weights all over the front of this
and that's the wrong place to be, you want to get
your weight as far back, like, like you're a mountain biker.
Like you've got your, like way over the back of the bike.
You've got it way out in front of you
and that way all of your weight is on the back
and it's very light on the front tire.
So your front tire is just kind of going into the rut.
It's finding its way on it own.
As soon as you put weight on the front tire,
that's when it digs in and that,
unfortunately, as you found out,
is when you go over the bar.
- Still got sand in my teeth.
When you're going down this, and there's the ruts in the
sand, you're telling me to try and stay in the ruts, but
what if I come out of a rut or I don't make it
to the rut I'm trying to get into,
is that game over then, am I going to stuck it?
- Probably not, if you do, it's just,
it's going to be nice and soft.
Like the sand, it's fluffy,
it's like jumping on a bed, you'll be fine.
- So here's the thing I'm wondering,
what's the deal with braking?
Like, what's the technique?
Are you suppose to use your brakes when you go down there?
- It's not one size fits all, right?
Like it's personal preference, but I would say
no, because you, yeah you don't want to
lose momentum typically in the sand.
You want to carry your momentum.
I mean you, genuinely have to commit to the rut.
- So, when Matthew van der Pool rides
down here, does he brake?
- I don't think he is.
I don't think he is, no.
No brakes on this for the pros for sure,
I mean this is all about just sending it.
I think if they're in an oh-no situation
then maybe there's a bit of a brake grab
but I'd have to review the tape
but my general sense is, no brakes.
All right, Oly, remember, kind of mid gear range.
Keep pedaling, get your weight on the back of the seat,
pick your head up, look up, look up, hit it.
Get your weight back.
Okay, now off, now way behind the bars, way back, way back.
Get your weight back, yeah weight back.
Whew, yeah good job man!
- God.
- Let's see your carrying technique, oh no.
- How's this?
- No.
- I look pro right?
- No.
- Oh God, I'm going really fast as well.
- Come on.
- Oh mate this is well steep.
(zippy music)
- I'm going to show you how to carry a bike too.
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
- I thought this was like, legit.
- That is like, um, yeah that's like you
killed something in the woods, like a deer
and you're like carrying it out of the woods, it's,
yeah exactly, yeah that's even better.
(Oliver grunting)
- Yeah, that's exactly how they do it.
Van der Pool should be taking notes.
- I might have created like a new way of doing it.
- Okay here, I'm going to show you real quick.
You grab it here, right hand here.
Just hoist it up.
Okay, put it up there, yep get it through.
Now hand here, hand here, let go, let go.
Goes underneath there, and then it goes there.
- On that?
- Yeah, that's exactly, there you go.
Now, you are a good pro cross rider.
- Like this?
- Yeah, exactly.
Don't let me see that other Hercules stuff again.
- Okay.
- Okay, that was good, high five, high five.
You did a good job.
- Thanks man.
- You ripped down that.
We've got to put it together though, man.
This is one of four parts, to conquer the cull.
You got to go down this, then we got to go
up that hard section, back down this other steep one,
and then we got to run up here,
remount and get back on the bike.
- Okay,
- You ready?
- Yeah.
- Let's do it.
- I don't know how to do the remount.
- At, we're going to work on that.
- Okay.
(upbeat music)
Show off.
- What did you think of this?
- It's knackering.
- So hard isn't it?
- Yeah, really hard.
- Yeah, like when you watch it,
at least when I've seen it on TV, cause I've never
been here actually but when I've now come
down this like this, and then I've seen this section
where someone like van der Pool
is able to ride it but he decides to get off and run.
That's what I was talking to you about with the momentum,
like your ability to carry your speed up it and jump off
and run is often times faster in cyclocross.
Like, if you have to do 10 huge, thirty cadence
drills up this thing in the middle of a race,
it's like you already know how hard that is.
- Yeah.
- And you know how hard this is, and then if you just
throw in a weight session here with your legs
to get up this, versus just jumping off
and hopping back on, with it being faster,
you can see how a section like this, it,
in cyclocross land, it's a lot smarter.
- Yeah.
- Saves your energy, save you those big
efforts for when you actually need them.
(techno music)
- So you can see the difficulty in this after you
fly down on the big decent, you got to get off and
run up that, then you got to do a huge effort here,
hit this rut perfectly, which drops you off to that
insanely steep run.
- Yeah, oh God.
- Cardiovascularly, it is such an ass.
- It is incredibly, I can't believe how tough it is.
It is like doing the hardest interval session you've
ever done but then also the technical skill
is just blowing my mind.
For someone like me, it's really, really difficult.
But it is fun!
- It is fun, but I think for everybody it's difficult.
That's the truth, that it's not easy even for the pros.
This it like one of the most challenging, you know,
finesse, technique, needed tracks that exists.
- Nice.
(upbeat music)
- So this is the second sand drop in the Zonhoven cull,
and this one's got a little bit of an arc to it.
So, you're going to need to lean the bike a little bit,
you can't turn the front tire.
If you turn the front tire with your weight up front
remember what I said?
Straight over the bars.
- Yeah.
- So you've got to lean the bike over and keep momentum,
so through here you actually want to be kind of like pedaling
with your weight back to about here, and then you just
want to get the bike out in front of you,
and I know, I know what you're thinking
when you look at this.
- Yeah, I'm thinking it looks really hard.
It's like that one was hard.
With this one now I've got to kind of go turn
through this big, deep rut.
- You're going to do great.
Are you ready to try it?
- I'll give it a go.
(pop music)
(censor beep)
(epic music)
- This is the final part of the cull.
Now for this, you need to get off the bike,
and you need to be running with it,
before you lose momentum, right?
Just like that one, that one's a little different.
This one has some grass running so it makes it
a little better but this thing is so steep.
- Yeah.
- It's terribly steep.
- It is.
- You want to look for the holes that are already there
from the riders in front of you, and we've done this
a couple times so there's already some holes,
and you want to put your feet in those.
You don't wan to be breaking a new path in this.
You want to use the ones that are already matted down,
because that's going to make like, it's little stairs there.
Like little cow hooves.
Like the cows have followed the other cows.
- Okay.
- Do cows even follow other cows?
- Well, if you say so, but I think
anyone who has watched GCN videos in the past and seen
me running will know that I'm really good at running so
this bits probably the bit where I'm
going to do really well.
- Yeah, especially if you're carrying the bike
the way you've been carrying it the last couple times.
- Watch and learn Powers.
- Dismount, now start running with the bike.
Now, pick it up on the down tube,
and find some other holes to get.
(Oliver exclaiming)
- Where have the cows been?
- Maybe they're over here.
- (Bleep) bloody hell.
Well, I hope you've enjoyed watching me, fall off,
but, if you'd like to see it done properly,
then you can do, because we're going to have coverage
of the Super prestige Cyclocross races
over on the GCN racing YouTube channel.
It's free to subscribe and watch it, so head on over.
- Yeah, and if you want to see other videos like this one,
please check those out right over here,
and if you want to subscribe to GCN click right here,
and definitely leave us a comment too.
Let us know what you think of Oly, and how he did today.
- Maybe don't.
What about those waffles and beers
you were promising me?
- Oh yeah, yeah yeah yeah, all right let's go get those.
- Yes.