Slalomcross

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Curt Chapman
Posts: 223
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 6:23 pm
Location: UT, USA

Slalomcross

Post by Curt Chapman » Tue Feb 07, 2012 5:55 am

Yeah, It's not an offically "sanctioned" race...

Could someone explain the "rules" of slalom cross to me?

How does the timing work?

Thank you, Good Night!

Paul Howard
Posts: 202
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2003 7:15 pm
Location: Corvallis, Oregon. USA

Re: Slalomcross

Post by Paul Howard » Sun Mar 04, 2012 1:45 am

Slalomcross and it's "rules" and "timing":

Are you putting on a race?

You can time it however you want, first of all I'm guessing you know "what" slalomcross is, but in case you don't, it goes something like this generally:
1) It's a head-to-head dual racer format.
2) The beginning section is 2 "slalom" courses- you can do straight cones, offset cones, serpentine, whatever, and it lends itself to "mirror" symmetry but you can do "paralllel" symmetry of the courses as well.
3) The middle section is "downhill", the 2 beginning slalom sections end and merge into a common downhill lane, usually marked by PAIRS of cones that both racers have to stay between, and generally this is done with nice winding downhill sorta course, then,
4) The end section will split the common single downhill course into 2 separate slalom courses again, which like before, can be straight, with offsets, serpentine, or whatever you want.
a) When the racers emerge from the downhill section, they have to stay in side of the slalom course they started in, or
b) When the racers emerge from the downhill section, they have to switch to the other side.
The point is, use 2 colored sets of cones so whether you go with option (a) or (b), If you start in the "red" lane you end in the "red" lane and the courses should be set accordingly.

TIMING-
1) Often for simplicty, cone penalties are simplified, such as each rider can hit up to 5 (or however many you choose) cones and each rider is still "In", hit more than 5 (or whatever) and it's a DQ. Raw times are kept for each rider or for more simplicity, just the time of the winner of each round is kept, or to be really really simple, no times are kept, but the winners advance to the next round in a "winner" bracket and the loser either gets eliminated or goes to a "loser" bracket.
2) Hitting one of the cones in the "downhill" section either DQ's the rider who whacked the cone, or to be really simple and slack, it's just ignored.
3) If you really want to complicate it, then "regular" slalom rules can be applied with individual cone count time penalties such as 1/10th of a second per cone hit added onto raw times.

Other miscellaneous stuff:
Sometimes things like hoops, big cardboard boxes, etc are put in the course and each rider has to duck and go through them, or somthing like plastic bowling pins are put in place that either you have to hit, or get extra points for hitting as an option.

Slalomcross is taken seriously by some and not taken too seriously my most.

Hopefully that answers your question, - Paul
Last edited by Paul Howard on Sun Mar 04, 2012 11:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I just dig slalom!

Curt Chapman
Posts: 223
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 6:23 pm
Location: UT, USA

Re: Slalomcross

Post by Curt Chapman » Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:42 am

Thank you Mr. Wog.

Not holding a race yet, but considering...

Paul Howard
Posts: 202
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2003 7:15 pm
Location: Corvallis, Oregon. USA

Re: Slalomcross

Post by Paul Howard » Sat Mar 10, 2012 3:26 am

Hey Curt, Are you in the SLC or Park City area? If so, say "Hey" to Martin, Trish or anyone else around there who knows me.

Another tip for slalomcross - If the other guy is bigger than you and gets ahead of you in the first slalom section of the course, then duck and tuck as tight and small as you can and draft the big guy through the downhill section and let his wake pull you up to speed by the end of the downhill section, then pump the end slalom section and stay a little compacted for aerodynmics and you'll probably be first to the finish line.

Adios - Paul
I just dig slalom!

Curt Chapman
Posts: 223
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 6:23 pm
Location: UT, USA

Re: Slalomcross

Post by Curt Chapman » Sun Mar 11, 2012 10:31 pm

Paul Howard wrote:Hey Curt, Are you in the SLC or Park City area? If so, say "Hey" to Martin, Trish or anyone else around there who knows me.

Another tip for slalomcross - If the other guy is bigger than you and gets ahead of you in the first slalom section of the course, then duck and tuck as tight and small as you can and draft the big guy through the downhill section and let his wake pull you up to speed by the end of the downhill section, then pump the end slalom section and stay a little compacted for aerodynmics and you'll probably be first to the finish line.

Adios - Paul
I live in the Salt Lake valley, but ride with Trish and Martin whenever possible. I'll let them know Mr. Pauly-Wog said Hi. Should see Trish at our little race in a couple of weeks.

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