Anton Davydov: how cyclocross culture is being cultivated in St. Petersburg

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Useful from the issue

1. Train on the surface where the race will take place

   If there is gravel or cross-country ahead, volumes on asphalt will not prepare for shaking and cornering. Anton builds training primarily on the ground and in the forest.

2. Cross improves road handling

   Skills from the ground help out when there is a blockage in the group or skidded in a turn. Anton advises road riders to try cyclocross.

3. Do not lose equipment in winter

   Alongside indoor training and running, Anton always rides in the woods in winter, on whatever bike is available, so he does not have to relearn bike handling in spring.

4. Get ready to race more distance

   Before the 170-kilometer dirt race, Anton drives two hundred kilometers a couple of times to get used to the load and figure out how much food to take.

5. Universal bicycle — cross with wide tires

   A cross or gravel bike with 38–40 mm tires allows you to ride on the road and turn onto dirt, not limiting yourself to the same asphalt route.

6. The goal helps to start training

   Anton admits that without starts on the horizon, he will go limp. Even cycling to work is easier when there is a race in a month.

7. It is useful for the organizer to drive his route

   Anton once participated in his own races and believes that this keeps him from unnecessarily hard tracks.

8. The race abroad is a sight—seeing

   The starts in Estonia and Finland showed Anton the level of riders and organization to strive for, and gave him ideas for his races.

From art school to cycling school

Anton got into a sports cycling school as a teenager: he was expelled from art school for his behavior, and a family friend advised him to channel his energy into cycling. They gave him a road 'Start' bike, trained on the track, on the road, then on a mountain bike; there he met Artem Trofimov, with whom he later made videos on a shared channel.

There was no cyclocross in the children's school: in autumn and winter, they rode 'winter' bikes with coarse tires and homemade fenders, but no one taught jumping and dismounting. Interest appeared around 2014 when Anton was looking for a second bike for volume and chose a cyclocross bike as a versatile option. In winter, he rode the trainer while watching cyclocross races, got hooked, and bought an aluminum cyclocross bike.

Why is there almost no cyclocross in Russia

According to Russian rules, cyclocross is considered a subsection of MTB, and not a separate discipline, as in other countries. Therefore, Anton believes, official races are held nominally, by the same people who do mountain biking, without understanding the traditions. Participants know little about the culture of cyclocross and ride at the behest of the coach, and not because they are interested.

He does not call himself an expert, but I am sure that this culture does not exist in our country yet: people often consider any ride outside the asphalt to be cross-country. Anton's dream is for us to have what we have in Belgium and Holland, where cross—country broadcasts are comparable in popularity to football, with fan clubs and scarves. This, he admits, takes years.

How did the St. Petersburg cross-country races appear

Anton and Artem held their first race in February 2016 in Peterhof — and, to their surprise, almost 20 people came. Before that, there were semi-serious races of another organizer in the city, but they came to naught, and Anton wanted to continue. Almost all this time, the project has been based on altruism: this is not a business, but a desire to show what cyclocross is.

Trips abroad played an important role. Anton was a spectator at a cross-country race in Belgium in order to immerse himself in the atmosphere and transfer something to his races, and he himself raced at the Finnish and Estonian cups. There, according to him, the level of both riders and organizations is noticeably higher, and after such trips you come back with a different view.

This season Anton decided not to make the cup with the overall standings, but to hold separate races and announce every three weeks — the situation is unstable, but there are enough worries. The strategy is not a revolution, but a refinement: he collects feedback from participants and fans and sees an increase in the number of riders, spectators and partners. At the end of July, according to tradition, there will be a cross—country race with a camp in the forest, food and music - a small cycling festival.

Work as a bicycle mechanic

For about ten years, Anton worked as a heat power engineer at a quiet job two after two: there was time for video and training, but at some point he realized that this was stagnation. After a short experience at work with a heavy schedule, he accidentally saw a vacancy in a bicycle workshop, got involved, and now it's a common cause of three partners who are responsible for everything themselves.

Anton says there is no burnout yet: bicycles are constantly changing, and for the sake of a new node you have to watch videos in English and read documentation. He likes that a variety of people come to the workshop with their stories. According to his estimates, 60-65% of the work is done by expensive sports and touring bikes, the rest is simple urban bikes, which are also important: the workshop takes on everything. For Ilya's Novgorod cross, the workshop gives service certificates.

Train where you race

Anton has never followed a training plan. In winter he ran through snowdrifts, did intervals on the trainer and always rode in the woods to maintain his handling skills. In summer, the race sets the direction: if there are 170 km of dirt roads ahead, he needs a couple of 200 km rides to work out how much food to carry.

The main rule of recent years is to train in the element where you will perform: on the ground, slippery surface, roots. Who rolls only asphalt all spring, on a cross-country or gravel race gets, according to Anton, in full. Ilya adds that after several cross-country races, the road race seemed to him noticeably easier.

Anton is confident that skills from off-road riding are useful on the road: in a group crash or when making a mistake in a turn, the technique that mountain biking and cross-country provide comes to the rescue. Plus, it's just fun to jump over roots and logs, slide and get dirty.

Georgia, trips and the most memorable races

For almost five months, from late September to late February, Anton lived in Georgia. He praises the country primarily for its people and food; personally, no one squeezed him on the road, but acquaintances talked about drivers' poor attitude towards cyclists. Near Tbilisi, the climbs start right from home, and a loop through Kojori gives a lot of elevation gain in a couple of hours. He went there in a hurry on a mountain bike and regretted it on the road descents.

Last summer Anton and Katya went on an easy tour without tents: Veliky Novgorod, Staraya Russa, Valdai. The real mountain bike biking with bags is still ahead of him. Anton sold the mountain bike he used to race on: in flat Petersburg, a two—suspension, in his opinion, is not justified, and he likes landing with a ram more - there are three grips on the steering wheel of the cross instead of one.

The most memorable races were the cross races in Estonia with a strong mass cup, where experienced riders on carbon, tubes, and electronics stand side by side at the start; marathons in the Czech Republic and Tartu with thousands of participants; an MTB race in Croatia with a view of the Adriatic. The longest ride was a 300-kilometer brevet near St. Petersburg, which, in his words, was unremarkable: he gets bored on the road.

Timestamps

1. 00:00Introduction
2. 00:49How Anton got into cycling school
3. 02:25The first acquaintance with cyclocross
4. 04:00Cyclocross in Russia
5. 06:25The first race in Peterhof and trips abroad
6. 09:41Separate YouTube channels with Artyom
7. 11:17From engineer to bicycle mechanic
8. 16:58Curiosities in the workshop
9. 17:49Crossover Series: Season plans
10. 21:51How to train under the ground
11. 28:19Five months in Georgia
12. 30:41Tour of the Novgorod Region
13. 32:18The most memorable races
14. 36:24The longest trips and plans for the summer
15. 39:39The dream of Cyclocross culture

Mentioned in this episode

CXRACE SPb · Tsar Grader · Tour de Selishchi · Tartu Marathon