YOLO it! The clinic is super helpful to learn the basics like starts (its like zwift, SPRINT SPRINT SPRINT, but you need to clip in first), mounting/dismounting and cornering, but the best practice is doing, so getting out there and going for it can only help

To be clear, Croton is great race to race cyclocross for the first time. What happens in a cross is all fun, but not trivial, I would suggest someone walks you thru the basics before doing any race.

BlakeFoster said:

@Matt Budofsky that’s awesome and great advice, and thank you @David Yang for the insight, too. 

I’m not sure I can do a cyclocross clinic ride until the week before (lol) idk if that matters or not or if I can just go in super raw. I’m kinda down cause YOLO…. 

Theres a chance I may be able to do CX this Sunday it’s Dave Yang if schedules allow

Let's hit up Cunningham first this Sunday morning and/or subsequent weekends. We'll ride on grass fields first to get the basics down and get a feel for everything and then go super light on the easier east side trail. This is how Jim, Eloy and others got me into cx and riding on dirt. Outside of the clinic the first official cross race I did was on a crazy, muddy, snowy SuperCross Cup course.

This isn't an official cross clinic considering I'm about as novice as they get and don't have course tape and stuff, but I can help with the basics. Everyone is welcome to join (but you will need a cross or gravel bike).

Sunday Sept 8th
8AM to Whenever we feel like it

To start: Cunningham Park near Field 6
https://maps.app.goo.gl/J2MHmtDAhdTSpm1U7

Eventually: Cunningham easy trails on the east side
https://maps.app.goo.gl/MT6gjGHZuv4CrA8F9

You will need: A cyclocross or gravel bike with a minimum of 30mm+ tires with at least some tread. We will be removing at least your downtube bottle cages.

What we're going to do: Get comfortable riding off road, learning basic skills (starts, dismount/mounts, hurdles, tight turns). Easy trail riding.

Matt Budofsky said:

@BlakeFosterI can't find the post, but I know @eloy has put it somewhere in the forum before with his typical timing for races and I found it super useful for my first few races. Basically you want to get to the race like 1.5-2 hours before you're actually set to race so you have plenty of time to pre-ride the course, warm up, register, etc. It also lets you watch the more experienced field navigate some of the places you may have ID'd as potential rough parts to see how they handle it

Looks like comments search is not working, we are looking into it.

Separately, here's an attempt of a quick/short version:

• You want to pre-ride/recon the course before your race 
• Typically you can only recon between races
• There are different category races all day -- as an example: Masters @ 8 am, W3/4 @ 9 am, M3/4 10am, M5 11am..., etc... -- check bikereg and know the times specific to the event
• You realistically cannot recon right before your race, as that time is used for staging the start grid of your race, and duh, you need to be at staging
• Staging typically happens 15~10 minutes before race start
• That means you can recon after the finish of 2 races before yours
• That is, in the example above, if you are racing the M Cat 5 at 11am you can pre-ride/recon after the finish of the W3/4 @ 9am, which would be aproximately at 9:45am (as races are 45ish minutes long)
• Get to the venue in time to be able to do that

Super helpful, thank you! I am also going into the YT rabbit hole of cross videos and lemme just say I am enjoying every moment. 

(Moving this discussion around tutorials to the more general cyclocross thread)