What: Advanced Cyclocross Skills Clinic with Joachim Parbo
When: 4 to 7:30 p.m. Monday
Where: Meet at Boulder Cycle Sport, 4580 Broadway, Unit B, Boulder
More info: $45 cash or check at Boulder Cycle Sport, includes food and drink at Restaurant 4580; sign up in advance as space is limited; bouldercyclesport.com.
For cyclocross racers, there are three things that can make you faster — improved skills, better fitness and more cowbell.
Well, maybe not more cowbell. But those who have been bitten by the cyclocross bug can hone the first of those factors, skills, on Monday evening at an advanced skills clinic with pro racer and three-time Danish national cyclocross champion Joachim Parbo.
Cyclocross racing requires a different bag of tricks than road or mountain-bike racing. ‘Cross newbies tend to get tripped up on how to dismount, shoulder the bike to run over the barriers scattered throughout the course, and jump back on quickly. But there’s more to cyclocross than hopping on and off the bike smoothly, Parbo said.
“When people start racing, they think of trying to make it to the next obstacle really fast, but often, it’s the next turn you should be focused on,” said Parbo, who has come to the United States — and Boulder — to race every fall for the past four years. “It’s about planning ahead and trying to be more composed in your racing.”
Parbo will teach skills that deal with the sport’s incessant changes of speed, like planning your line through corners, accelerating into straight sections and riding through sand.
Brandon Dwight, owner of Boulder Cycle Sport, has been giving skills clinics for years. But as more and more people join the sport, he gets more requests about learning advanced skills, he said, like how to ride sand pits.
“People know sand pits are popular in Europe,” Dwight said. “It’s usually not a big part of the course — it could be anywhere from 20 to 70 yards long — but for some people, it can make or break their race.”
Dwight asked his friend Parbo to give a clinic to teach that skill and more; Parbo enthusiastically agreed.
On sand, Parbo said, “You have to be smart to save your energy for those sections.”
In fact, when Parbo teaches ‘cross clinics — and he teaches often, both in Europe and the United States — he’s trying to teach people to plan and race smarter in general. “You’re racing more against yourself than the other guys,” he said.
Art Schwadron, a cyclist from Boulder who races most weekends, said he signed up for the clinic for fine tuning.
“Every little bit makes a difference,” Schwadron said. You can spend a whole race 50 feet behind someone and not be able to close the gap, he said, but by improving your skills so you can go a second faster through a turn or the barriers, you might be able to close it.
Once the sun goes down Monday evening, the clinic will go indoors for the off-the-bike, technical segment of the clinic, in Restaurant 4580. Drinks and appetizers are included in the cost of the clinic.
Parbo seems hopeful that Boulder will see rain this weekend so the Monday night clinic will have a more traditional ‘cross feel — that is, muddy, wet and cold. “Sometimes, it’s actually too nice out here!”
Despite the pleasant weather, Parbo said he loves coming here.
“There’s a lot of great people here. There’s no bullshit, there’s no elitist approach.”
