The TCX is Giants cyclocross race bike. Cyclocross is a Fall/Winter cycling discipline that features bikes that look fairly similar to a road bike, but the majority of the course is off-road. Courses feature lots of twisty corners, short punchy climbs, steep descents, stairs, a sand pit or two. Today I will take the TCX to our local Cross course over at Elmwood park and ride it around the course we used for Falls Area Bicyclists Elmwood Forest Cross a couple weeks ago.
The Giant TCX Advanced Pro 2 is an awesome build for a cross bike featuring a single chainring up front and a wide range 11-36 cassette in the back. While the TCX may look like a road bike it has quite a few differences. The riding position is shorter and higher up, favoring the ability to shift your weight around to increase handling over optimal pedaling from the saddle and aerodynamics. Part of the height is also a slightly raised bottom bracket, the joint where the crankset and pedals turn.This allows a little more clearance from the ground while cornering hard or on off-camber turns. Another major difference is the tires, they are wider at 33mm as opposed to 23-28 for road bike and have some knobby tread on them for grip off-road.
Tire pressure is another place cross differs from road bikes, Today I will be running 22psi front and 23 rear. The lower tire pressure has been proven more effective on rougher surfaces, even on roads a lower pressure will offer better rolling resistance, for road bikes this is the difference between 80 and 100 psi. In cyclocross the tires are larger and often the ground is rougher so the more of the bumps the tires can absorb the less I will have to while I’m riding. Lower pressures also offer increased traction by allowing more of the tire to touch the ground and also the deforming of the tire over bumps allows the tire to maintain contact with the ground
It is low 60s high 50s today so I will be wearing my sweet Spoke-n-Sport kit and a lightweight base layer. Grab my helmet, gloves and bike computer and head for the door. For shoes I use clipless pedals that have a cleat on the bottom of the shoe that hooks into the pedal. I also have some toe spikes on my shoes which are common for cyclocross and mountain biking. They increase grip while running up hills particularly in wet sloppy conditions.
Upon arriving at Elmwood I jumped right onto the course, the TCX handled consistently through every corner whether on grass or dirt as well as leaves covering the the park. I tried a couple of mock starts in to see how the TCX handles a sudden quick acceleration from zero. The bike rolls off the line quite well I had no issues getting into a good power position out of the saddle while still keeping the rear wheel in contact with the ground. Then into a wide sweeping left hand corner which I didn’t have to brake at all for and immediately into some heavy braking for the main section of tight twisty corners. The TCX handled cornering while braking consistently and confidently. Off camber corners are tricky because the ground is sloped away, and so as a rider enters the corner the ground is effectively falling away from the front tire that the rider needs to be gripping the ground, as well as the ground is higher on the inside of the corner limiting the amount the rider can lean their bike. The higher bottom bracket on the TCX helped significantly with this scenario.
The Elmwood race course featured a corner in the sand pit which I had a lot of fun riding on the TCX. The sand increases the resistance and so no matter how fast you go you will never coast through it. Also, if you turn your front wheel left or right it significantly increase the resistance further because it is now wider and pushes more sand. If you turn too far the front wheel will dig down into the sand opposite the direction you want to turn and then it will just stop once it is buried far enough and you will fly over the bars, but don’t worry there is a nice soft sand pit to land in. So with all the challenges of sand pits come a couple cyclocross skills, one is the balance between pedaling power pedaling smoothness and weight position, the other is very fine precise choice of the line your tires roll on. Cue epic video of sand flying everywhere and bike going fast.
Next of the course is the stairs, yes stairs. Dismount your bike, pick it up carry it up a short flight of stairs and remount at the top, all as fast as you possibly can. There is a technique to dismounting and remounting, dismounting being generally much easier than remounting. The TCX is nice and light and the top tube is small enough that I can easily reach my whole hand around it to pick it up. This set of stairs is short enough that I just hold the bike with my left hand still on the handlebar and my right hand on the top tube and then remount at the top.
Then I finished up my ride by riding the rest of the way around our beautiful bike trail and back home setting a few PRs on the east side of the trail with the tail wind. I ended with 30 miles and 2.5 hours elapsed 2 hours moving. Back home to change clothes and then clean the bike off and get it ready for whichever one of you lucky people gets to ride it next. It is available for rent through our rental system. Thank you!
Tire pressure is another place cross differs from road bikes, Today I will be running 22psi front and 23 rear. The lower tire pressure has been proven more effective on rougher surfaces, even on roads a lower pressure will offer better rolling resistance, for road bikes this is the difference between 80 and 100 psi. In cyclocross the tires are larger and often the ground is rougher so the more of the bumps the tires can absorb the less I will have to while I’m riding. Lower pressures also offer increased traction by allowing more of the tire to touch the ground and also the deforming of the tire over bumps allows the tire to maintain contact with the ground
It is low 60s high 50s today so I will be wearing my sweet Spoke-n-Sport kit and a lightweight base layer. Grab my helmet, gloves and bike computer and head for the door. For shoes I use clipless pedals that have a cleat on the bottom of the shoe that hooks into the pedal. I also have some toe spikes on my shoes which are common for cyclocross and mountain biking. They increase grip while running up hills particularly in wet sloppy conditions.
Upon arriving at Elmwood I jumped right onto the course, the TCX handled consistently through every corner whether on grass or dirt as well as leaves covering the the park. I tried a couple of mock starts in to see how the TCX handles a sudden quick acceleration from zero. The bike rolls off the line quite well I had no issues getting into a good power position out of the saddle while still keeping the rear wheel in contact with the ground. Then into a wide sweeping left hand corner which I didn’t have to brake at all for and immediately into some heavy braking for the main section of tight twisty corners. The TCX handled cornering while braking consistently and confidently. Off camber corners are tricky because the ground is sloped away, and so as a rider enters the corner the ground is effectively falling away from the front tire that the rider needs to be gripping the ground, as well as the ground is higher on the inside of the corner limiting the amount the rider can lean their bike. The higher bottom bracket on the TCX helped significantly with this scenario.
The Elmwood race course featured a corner in the sand pit which I had a lot of fun riding on the TCX. The sand increases the resistance and so no matter how fast you go you will never coast through it. Also, if you turn your front wheel left or right it significantly increase the resistance further because it is now wider and pushes more sand. If you turn too far the front wheel will dig down into the sand opposite the direction you want to turn and then it will just stop once it is buried far enough and you will fly over the bars, but don’t worry there is a nice soft sand pit to land in. So with all the challenges of sand pits come a couple cyclocross skills, one is the balance between pedaling power pedaling smoothness and weight position, the other is very fine precise choice of the line your tires roll on. Cue epic video of sand flying everywhere and bike going fast.
Next of the course is the stairs, yes stairs. Dismount your bike, pick it up carry it up a short flight of stairs and remount at the top, all as fast as you possibly can. There is a technique to dismounting and remounting, dismounting being generally much easier than remounting. The TCX is nice and light and the top tube is small enough that I can easily reach my whole hand around it to pick it up. This set of stairs is short enough that I just hold the bike with my left hand still on the handlebar and my right hand on the top tube and then remount at the top.
Then I finished up my ride by riding the rest of the way around our beautiful bike trail and back home setting a few PRs on the east side of the trail with the tail wind. I ended with 30 miles and 2.5 hours elapsed 2 hours moving. Back home to change clothes and then clean the bike off and get it ready for whichever one of you lucky people gets to ride it next. It is available for rent through our rental system. Thank you!
Sweet write up Alonzo. Helps me understand the sport and how the bikes differ from other disciplines.
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