CycloCross Course Features Design

In this post, I'll cover some common and original CycloCross (CX) course features. Initially, I'll start with the standard Spiral (Pinwheel) and an original TV Turn (hairpin) bananza, I call, The Hammerhead.

How to design a CycloCross Spiral

The CX Spiral, aka the Spiral of Death, or the Pinwheel.

In this example, I'll cover a 27 metre wide CX Spiral. You will need, somewhere in the region of 48 stakes to mark this. The main component is a 13.5 metre rope/tape, that you reduce by 50 cm every clock face. There is a table below detailing the length of the rope/tape that you'll need, and how much you need to reduce it, as the size of the Spiral changes.

Place the stakes 3 metres apart along the radius, from the outside in.

Finally add the outside stakes.

The central stakes need to be wooden posts, as riders will try to handsling around them. The plastic ones will be crashed into and broken. Instead of tape, netting should be used.

The general principles are: 

Radius: The maximum radius is half a race lane width (3 metres / 2  = 1.5 metres) plus the number of turns you want to have (4 in this example) multiplied by the race lane width (3 metres). Quiq Maffs: (4 turns x 3 metres) + (3 metres / 2) = 13.5 metres, in the example above.

Diameter: The Top to bottom Diameter is two times the Radius, standard Maffs.

Clock Face Step-In: Each Clock Face is stepped in the race lane width in centimetres (300 cm) divided by number of clock face directions (12) divided by number of race lane directions (2), which is simply 6. As you need to come in two race lane widths by the time you're back to the entrance. Quiq Maffs: 300 cm / (12 / 2) = 50 cm

Here's a handy table, with variable widths and turns:

Race Lane Width	Number of Turns	Starting Radius	Top-Bottom Diameter	Clock Face Step-In
3	4	13.5	27	50 cm
3	5	16.5	33	50 cm
4	4	18	36	66 cm
4	5	22	44	66 cm
5	4	22.5	45	83 cm
5	5	27.5	55	83 cm

Alternate CycloCross Spiral Designs

The Cyclo-Cross Spiral is perfect for flat ground, but you can also stake it on an incline. On an Incline, you'd only need to use netting on the lower half, and tape on the upper half.

You could save some stakes by having the exit to the spiral beside the entrance. So the CX Spiral would look like the letter P.

The Hammerhead

An original creation. It's great for practising/exposing a rider's ability to turn in either direction. It consists on a series of hairpin turns (aka TV Turns, as in Pro Races, organisers will place a Banner or LED Display there for Television Broadcast sponsorship).

Netting, or Double wraps of tape are advised for the outside of the turns.

Hammerhead Alternatives

This is great for Flat Ground. Although if it were placed on an incline to create uphill drags, or one set of hairpins could be placed over a berm to create off-cambers.

The Race Lane width in the diagram is 3 metres, the minimum allowed. But if this is placed early in the course, before the riders are thinned out, 4 metres would be better at preserving the tape.