Cyclocross

The Crux is a rare beast; a thousand pound cyclo-cross bike that's designed for actual cyclo-cross. It's not a jack-of-all-trades utility bike dressed up as a CX bike but a 'cross bike that's designed for what cyclo-cross really is - racing.

Read about Giant's TCX2 on their website and you might think you're buying a full-on CX race iron. "Light enough to hoist and carry, fast enough to put you on the podium, that's TCX", they gush. In reality the £800 TCX is much more of an all-rounder, with a spec that suggests it'll do its miles in the week and spend most of its Sunday mornings tucked in the shed. It's a good bike though, capable of tackling proper off road and long tarmac jaunts too.

Have entered the Hellrider in West Wycombe, am staying near Reading for a few days. Have visited but not cycled in 'The Look Out' any good routes that would make a good warm up for the event? Any good routes in the general area. We normally ride on Exmoor and Dartmoor and are not beginners! We are using cyclocross and mountain bikes. Thanks for any ideas!

With the majority of cyclo-cross bikes these days seemingly going nowhere near the race course it's a surprise that anyone makes a 'cross tyre that's designed for anything other than the hardships of debris-riddled bike lanes and genteel bridleways, but thankfully Vittoria realise that there are still a few misguided idiots that use their cyclo-cross bikes for their intended purpose of an hour of painful mud of a Sunday morning and so produce a tyre for them. Hooray.