Ryan Bonick

2023 Cyclocross Year in Review

Wow, just wow. This has been an absolutely incredible season for me. I won a Cat 4/5 Single Speed race, and podiumed a geared Cat 4 race. And I’ve been able to hang with the leaders for a lap or two, even when I’m not finishing on the podium.

I definitely feel like I peaked closer to mid-season. My results skyrocketed (see win + podium) and I was having a blast. I even won a couple holeshots! Then, I think others’ trainings started to catch them up to where I was, and I was having to fight hard to keep in the running. But still managed to finish the season strong, and am looking forward a ton to next year already!

For the first time racing CX, I’m actually feeling competitive, not just racing people in the bottom 25% for spots. Still get my ass beat by juniors half my age, though - some things never change.

And to be completely clear: I still had a ton of fun doing that! There’s zero shade meant for myself or any of the other folks in that boat… one of the reasons I love cross is that you can still find people to compete against, regardless of whether you’re racing for 5th or 50th.

I’m not sure what to attribute this colossal shift to…. I have a few ideas, and the true answer is probably a mix of all of them.

1. Coach

   I’ve been working with Alex from Empirical Cycling since September of last year. Last year, we were mostly focused on making sure I didn’t burn out hard, like I did in 2021 with Trainer Road, and so I just had the fitness I had built on my own in 2022.

   With a full year of training, I feel stronger - my FTP has been built back up to where I peaked in Covid 2020 when I was doing like 3 days of TR Sweet Spot + 2-3 Zwift races a week. But without the insane burnout I got after that year. And (& this is the biggest factor IMO) I think my recovery has improved a ton.

   Being able to smash 400W out of corners in cross, lap after lap, is such a big difference. I’m still tanking lap times between lap one and the rest of the race, but the other laps are remarkably consistent. Almost every race, laps two onwards ended up being within about 10s of each other!

2. Skills

   One thing I felt like was holding me back last year was skills. Towards the end of last year’s season, I felt like I was finally feeling a bit more confident in my cornering ability - til I burped my tire the last race of the year.

   This year, I made sure that I was out doing skills & drills at least once a week. Our team practiced stuff like mounting and dismounting, carrying the bike, and cornering. I will also give a huge shoutout to CXHairs’s Skills, Drills, and Bellyaches: A Cyclocross Primer, which had a lot of stuff I had already picked up in a few years of racing, but also had some wonderful tips on fueling (I now drink a full bottle of carbs before races) and cornering drills.

   Frankly, I think cornering practice is one of the hugest things racers should practice. Dismounting & remounting smoothly without running into barriers is important, sure, but you’re doing that once or twice a lap hopefully, while you corner dozens of times a lap. Being able to corner more effectively and saving even 0.5s per corner adds up a ton! 30 corners / lap * 5 laps * 0.5s saved / corner = 75s saved. Over a minute!!

3. Racing Doubles / Single Speed

Besides that, another thing I did this year was double up races a bit more. Unfortunately, Single Speed 4/5s are ran at the same time as the geared 4s & 5s here in Colorado. So I just signed up for the Single Speed Open! Super easy with my new bike - I can just get into the gear I want & then remove the AXS batteries. With the single speed races, I don’t take them too seriously - I’ll race the first lap or so all out, and then as the field starts to spread out, I’ll start hunting handups. Still race hard besides that, but I’m not stressed if someone passes me because I stopped for a swig of beer or a strip of bacon.

I don’t do super well in them (obviously, it’s the open) but they are some extra race pace practice. Power typically is lower, but it’s surprising how close you can get sometimes to lap times as a single speed. With only one gear, you really tend to burn your matches on slower, steeper features where you get more bang for your buck, rather than sprinting down some straight when you’re already eating a ton of wind resistance.

Lastly, single speed open nets you a lot of placement points! Even getting bottom 25% still earned me more points than a top ten placement in cat 4s.

Progress (Last Year’s Goals)

Last year, I had 4 goals:

1. Better recovery

   This year, I feel like my recover is tons better than previous years. Still tons of room to improve (imagine if I could handle the 290-300W normalized first laps every lap)! But big win here, and I attribute most of that to my coach really pushing longer rides (I did two centuries this year, which is 1 more than I had previously done in my lifetime).

2. Cross-specific drills & practice

   This was the other big win this year IMO! Lots more practice on cornering, and my dismount/remount feels smoother this year, though I do sometimes still stutter step when redlining. Being able to smoothly remount & put in a surge of power to beat someone to the next corner is awesome.

   Still can’t bunny hop for shit; even popping curbs still scares me. And that beach pop-up at Cyclo-X Westminster was definitely rideable, but worried me so much that I ran it anyways.

3. Bit more running

   Lol. No, I did not pursue any running this year. I don’t really regret it - there wasn’t any huge running sections besides Cross of the North’s sandpit. My time was probably rightfully better spent on-bike training.

4. Higher FTP

   This one is a bit trickier - I haven’t taken an FTP test in over a year now. But if I had to guess, I’d say my FTP going into cross last year was probably around 270, and this year was closer to 280-290. Seems to have helped, though I think it’s tough to tease apart better recovery versus higher FTP on performance.

Goals for Next Year

So where do I want to improve more next year?

1. Skills

   I think this is one that will never ever get removed, to be honest. There’s always so much room for improving my handling skills, my cornering skills, my (in)ability to bunny hop. I need to continue practicing weekly, and improve from where I am now to even better handling. Maybe I can mix up the terrain; most of my practicing has been at Valmont Bike Park.

2. More FTP / Recovery

   Goals 1 & 2 are basically the entirety of cross, right? Fitness + handling. Obviously having a higher FTP will give me a faster race, so hope to build next year to even greater heights.

3. Reach Cat 3

   OK, so I know goals are supposed to be SMART & process oriented, not results oriented. And both 2 & 3 are me focusing on the outcome rather than process. But I really do think this goal is achievable. I’m already sitting on a decent number of upgrade points after podiuming (or close to it) several races this year. A single top step finish will likely put me into mandatory upgrade territory, so I’m likely to end up there if next year’s improvements are remotely close to this year’s.

Stats

Wins: 1

Series Wins: 1 (Cyclo-X Series)

Podiums: 1

Upgrade Points (towards Cat 3): 7 (4 if you don’t count the SSCX win)

Previous Years

Season 1 (2019): Low Cat 5. Avged bottom 20%

Season 2 (2021): Catted up to 4 bc USAC mandatory is 10 races and I didn’t wanna switch mid season. Probably could have stayed in 5 tbh, idk how much they care if you’re not winning. Avged bottom 20%.

Season 3 (2022): Still cat 4. Still… bottom 20%.

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