Ahead of this week's World Championships in Fayetteville, we brought together our favorite North American cx crushers, Caitlin Bernstein and Michael van den Ham, to answer a few questions about cyclocross skills.

1. What do you find is the hardest terrain to ride in a cx race and what tips and tricks have you found help?

Caitlin Bernstein: One of the best parts about 'cross is all the challenging, interesting and sometimes just crazy terrain and conditions we get to ride in - it’s never boring! Mud is always a challenge, it’s never the same from day to day and even differs from one corner to the next within the same course. I grew up mountain biking in Vermont, where I encountered my fair share of muddy rides, but I started CX when living in California, where mud was only a very rare treat for us. One tip I found helpful was to keep the front end lighter in the mud and keep weight on the rear wheel for traction when slippery. Practicing this in races helped my slide around corners faster and stay upright longer.

(Picture: Ethan Glading)

Michael van den Ham: The hardest terrain to ride is almost certainly that deep, heavy, sloggy mud that almost seems like it wants to grab your bike and suck you into the earth with it. While might not be terribly technical, if you have a race with a lot of sections like that (see Dendermonde from 2020 or 2021), it takes a certain mental attitude to be successful.

First, be willing to just keep plugging away at your own pace. Heavy terrain almost never leads to a tight head-to-head race, so being able to settle in at your maximum pace and just keep moving forward is an underrated and important skill.

(Picture: Fellusch)

Secondly, accelerate into the hardest sections. This always seems hard, because, well, the race is hard, and if you are anything like me, you might be a little tired! But if you're able to stand up and sprint into these heavy sections to hit them with a little more speed, you'd be amazed at how much faster you can go through them and how much less energy it takes in the end. I always like to remind my coaching clients that Cyclocross is not a time trial and the fastest way around the course is almost always to break things up in spots to attack the course and spots to recover.

Finally, how you sit on the bike and pedal does matter. Think about getting your bodyweight back, riding a lower cadence, and driving power through your hips, glutes, and lower back. This is definitely something to practice before race day and I like to add in some lower cadence efforts into my training to simulate these heavy races in the build-up to the season.

2. Best way to dismount/remount?  

CB: I’m not the one to ask here, this is the weakest part of my CX game! For me, the key is not to overthink it and just try to stay smooth. I do practice a lot in the summer, which helps a lot! There are some great drills to break down the steps - search for videos on Youtube!

MvdH: I could probably write a thousand words on the technique for dismounting and remounting, so instead maybe I'll keep it simple! The best way to dismount and remount is whatever way you practice. Let's face it, getting on and off your bike at high speed is not the most natural feeling thing in the world, so it takes consistent practice to feel good on your remounts and dismounts. Usually, I start my cyclocross-specific training sometime in August, and even after having raced for a decade, I still go back to the basics and focus on my form for remounts and dismounts. Once that foundation is established before the season starts, I try and add a couple of remounts and dismounts into pretty much every ride I do. It doesn't need to be structured, but trying to do a good remount and dismount every time you get onto your bike during the CX season is only going to make it feel more natural during races.

Easton-Giant/Liv rider Bridget Tooley shows off her bunny hop skills at Go Cross. (picture: Bruce Buckley)

3. Barriers – bunny hop or hop off?  

CB: While I’ve been having some fun working on (tiny) jumps on my mountain bike and hoping over small longs on my CX bike, I haven’t learned how to bunny hop the barriers. I would love to learn but I know it’s a skill that takes a lot of time to master!

MvdH: Can I just answer "Yes?" I do hop barriers sometimes, but not every time. My rule here is pretty simple: if I can't comfortably hop the barriers in pre-ride, I'm not even going to try in the race. The time to learn to hop barriers or improve your barrier hopping is not 30 minutes before the race starts and the last thing I want to be doing during the race is thinking or worrying about the barriers coming up later in the lap. In pre-ride, I usually give myself one chance to roll up to them, stop, and have a look to see how tall they are, how spaced out they are, etc. but if I don't feel good hopping them the next time I see them, I've learned it's best for me just to get off and run.

4. Favorite way to warm up? 

CB: If the weather isn’t absolutely foul and the area around the race allows, I like to warm up by riding on the road around the race venue. Especially if it’s hot outside, it’s nice to move around and catch some wind. Riding around can be a fun way to see a little bit of the town/city around the race venue too!

I don’t like to overdo it in terms of effort before the race - I keep it light with a build-up through zones and some short, hard efforts to get the body ready, without overheating or getting fatigued.

MvdH: When I was a younger rider, I used to follow a really structured warm-up, but these past few years I've been a lot more loose about it and try to listen to what my body says it needs, day-of. That said, the general format stays the same:

3 hours before the race: Arrive to the course, get numbers, eat a snack.

2-2.5 hours before the race: 2-3 laps on the course. First lap is slow, maybe stopping to look at technical sections. For the second lap I'll go a little faster and try to identify key sections of the course to attack and sections of the course I can recover on. Finally, if I track isn't too long or heavy, I'll add a third lap and pick 2-3 of those key sections to hit at race pace. The goal here is to feel strong, snappy, and ride some of the technical parts of the track at speed.

1-2 hours before the race: Put my number on my skinsuit, change into that skinsuit, drink water, have another small snack, and relax.

45 minutes before the race: Put on my headphones, turn up the music, and get on the trainer. I always spend the first 10 minutes of my time on the with my eyes closed, spinning easily, and thinking through the course. Not just where the turns are but how they're going to feel. I'm sure I look crazy, but I'll be sitting them pretending to shift and leaning my weight to one side or the other for each turn!

15 minutes before the race: Get off the trainer, go to the start-line and remind myself to relax - all the hard work is done, now the thing I've trained for is about to happen!

5. Something you always bring to cx races that just makes life better? 

CB: My waffle maker! I have a travel size waffle maker that I bring, along with some waffle mix and Vermont maple syrup. I try to stay in a house with a kitchen but sometimes end up in a hotel for a weekend and having my own waffles makes life better - way better than the hotel lobby waffles :)

MvdH: Noise-canceling headphones! Being able to just tune out the rest of the world for a few minutes makes a huge difference to me!

6. A weird thing that you do during a race that just works for you? 

CB: I have a stutter step. I’ve tried to get rid of it, but having started CX at 25 years old, after 4 knee surgeries, learning this skill and jumping off a bad knee has been a big challenge. I’m faster just doing it my way than trying to slow down and get rid of it.

People stress out a lot about not having perfect remounts, but it’s really not the MOST important thing in 'cross - there’s a lot of other areas you can work on that will help more. I hope other stutter-steppers out there find comfort in knowing you can still race World Cups and podium at UCI races, even with your stutter step!

MvdH: I don't think I'm too superstitious, but I do tend to be a little weird about my warm-up music. I always start my warm-up with the same song for an entire season and then pick a new one for the next season (this year it's been 'Paralyzed' by Sueco). To add to that, I'll only get off the trainer at the end of a song and insist on pausing the playlist before the next song starts. Because that makes sense, right?

Ahead of this week's World Championships in Fayetteville, we brought together our favorite North American cx crushers, Caitlin Bernstein and Michael van den Ham, to answer a few questions about cyclocross skills.

1. What do you find is the hardest terrain to ride in a cx race and what tips and tricks have you found help?

Caitlin Bernstein: One of the best parts about 'cross is all the challenging, interesting and sometimes just crazy terrain and conditions we get to ride in - it’s never boring! Mud is always a challenge, it’s never the same from day to day and even differs from one corner to the next within the same course. I grew up mountain biking in Vermont, where I encountered my fair share of muddy rides, but I started CX when living in California, where mud was only a very rare treat for us. One tip I found helpful was to keep the front end lighter in the mud and keep weight on the rear wheel for traction when slippery. Practicing this in races helped my slide around corners faster and stay upright longer.

(Picture: Ethan Glading)

Michael van den Ham: The hardest terrain to ride is almost certainly that deep, heavy, sloggy mud that almost seems like it wants to grab your bike and suck you into the earth with it. While might not be terribly technical, if you have a race with a lot of sections like that (see Dendermonde from 2020 or 2021), it takes a certain mental attitude to be successful.

First, be willing to just keep plugging away at your own pace. Heavy terrain almost never leads to a tight head-to-head race, so being able to settle in at your maximum pace and just keep moving forward is an underrated and important skill.

(Picture: Fellusch)

Secondly, accelerate into the hardest sections. This always seems hard, because, well, the race is hard, and if you are anything like me, you might be a little tired! But if you're able to stand up and sprint into these heavy sections to hit them with a little more speed, you'd be amazed at how much faster you can go through them and how much less energy it takes in the end. I always like to remind my coaching clients that Cyclocross is not a time trial and the fastest way around the course is almost always to break things up in spots to attack the course and spots to recover.

Finally, how you sit on the bike and pedal does matter. Think about getting your bodyweight back, riding a lower cadence, and driving power through your hips, glutes, and lower back. This is definitely something to practice before race day and I like to add in some lower cadence efforts into my training to simulate these heavy races in the build-up to the season.

2. Best way to dismount/remount?  

CB: I’m not the one to ask here, this is the weakest part of my CX game! For me, the key is not to overthink it and just try to stay smooth. I do practice a lot in the summer, which helps a lot! There are some great drills to break down the steps - search for videos on Youtube!

MvdH: I could probably write a thousand words on the technique for dismounting and remounting, so instead maybe I'll keep it simple! The best way to dismount and remount is whatever way you practice. Let's face it, getting on and off your bike at high speed is not the most natural feeling thing in the world, so it takes consistent practice to feel good on your remounts and dismounts. Usually, I start my cyclocross-specific training sometime in August, and even after having raced for a decade, I still go back to the basics and focus on my form for remounts and dismounts. Once that foundation is established before the season starts, I try and add a couple of remounts and dismounts into pretty much every ride I do. It doesn't need to be structured, but trying to do a good remount and dismount every time you get onto your bike during the CX season is only going to make it feel more natural during races.

Easton-Giant/Liv rider Bridget Tooley shows off her bunny hop skills at Go Cross. (picture: Bruce Buckley)

3. Barriers – bunny hop or hop off?  

CB: While I’ve been having some fun working on (tiny) jumps on my mountain bike and hoping over small longs on my CX bike, I haven’t learned how to bunny hop the barriers. I would love to learn but I know it’s a skill that takes a lot of time to master!

MvdH: Can I just answer "Yes?" I do hop barriers sometimes, but not every time. My rule here is pretty simple: if I can't comfortably hop the barriers in pre-ride, I'm not even going to try in the race. The time to learn to hop barriers or improve your barrier hopping is not 30 minutes before the race starts and the last thing I want to be doing during the race is thinking or worrying about the barriers coming up later in the lap. In pre-ride, I usually give myself one chance to roll up to them, stop, and have a look to see how tall they are, how spaced out they are, etc. but if I don't feel good hopping them the next time I see them, I've learned it's best for me just to get off and run.

4. Favorite way to warm up? 

CB: If the weather isn’t absolutely foul and the area around the race allows, I like to warm up by riding on the road around the race venue. Especially if it’s hot outside, it’s nice to move around and catch some wind. Riding around can be a fun way to see a little bit of the town/city around the race venue too!

I don’t like to overdo it in terms of effort before the race - I keep it light with a build-up through zones and some short, hard efforts to get the body ready, without overheating or getting fatigued.

MvdH: When I was a younger rider, I used to follow a really structured warm-up, but these past few years I've been a lot more loose about it and try to listen to what my body says it needs, day-of. That said, the general format stays the same:

3 hours before the race: Arrive to the course, get numbers, eat a snack.

2-2.5 hours before the race: 2-3 laps on the course. First lap is slow, maybe stopping to look at technical sections. For the second lap I'll go a little faster and try to identify key sections of the course to attack and sections of the course I can recover on. Finally, if I track isn't too long or heavy, I'll add a third lap and pick 2-3 of those key sections to hit at race pace. The goal here is to feel strong, snappy, and ride some of the technical parts of the track at speed.

1-2 hours before the race: Put my number on my skinsuit, change into that skinsuit, drink water, have another small snack, and relax.

45 minutes before the race: Put on my headphones, turn up the music, and get on the trainer. I always spend the first 10 minutes of my time on the with my eyes closed, spinning easily, and thinking through the course. Not just where the turns are but how they're going to feel. I'm sure I look crazy, but I'll be sitting them pretending to shift and leaning my weight to one side or the other for each turn!

15 minutes before the race: Get off the trainer, go to the start-line and remind myself to relax - all the hard work is done, now the thing I've trained for is about to happen!

5. Something you always bring to cx races that just makes life better? 

CB: My waffle maker! I have a travel size waffle maker that I bring, along with some waffle mix and Vermont maple syrup. I try to stay in a house with a kitchen but sometimes end up in a hotel for a weekend and having my own waffles makes life better - way better than the hotel lobby waffles :)

MvdH: Noise-canceling headphones! Being able to just tune out the rest of the world for a few minutes makes a huge difference to me!

6. A weird thing that you do during a race that just works for you? 

CB: I have a stutter step. I’ve tried to get rid of it, but having started CX at 25 years old, after 4 knee surgeries, learning this skill and jumping off a bad knee has been a big challenge. I’m faster just doing it my way than trying to slow down and get rid of it.

People stress out a lot about not having perfect remounts, but it’s really not the MOST important thing in 'cross - there’s a lot of other areas you can work on that will help more. I hope other stutter-steppers out there find comfort in knowing you can still race World Cups and podium at UCI races, even with your stutter step!

MvdH: I don't think I'm too superstitious, but I do tend to be a little weird about my warm-up music. I always start my warm-up with the same song for an entire season and then pick a new one for the next season (this year it's been 'Paralyzed' by Sueco). To add to that, I'll only get off the trainer at the end of a song and insist on pausing the playlist before the next song starts. Because that makes sense, right?