My enemy Gord has posted an excellent precis on the degenerate art of cyclocross.

I will also be at the Saturday race, and would further note that the organizers are doing a "learn to cyclocross" clinic starting at 8 am. Cross-curious types are encouraged to attend, and reminded that mountain bikes are permitted in all races except the A category men.

But I'm really posting this as a pointer to a very short video (4 megs of Quicktime) I shot at last weekend's race: it shows you how several riders in the A race handled the delicate art of the dismount.

Of interest is the fact that many of these riders do not use the classic cyclocross dismount (though the eventual winner, Andrew "Pinner" Pinfold, does. Please, no letters about my atrocious typo in the movie titling. Argh).

It's really easy: leave your left foot locked in. Unlock your right foot and swing the right leg back: this is a natural dismount move, something most riders already do. The trick is to then bring your right leg between the left leg and the frame. This is surprisingly easy. Practice it five times and you'll get it. The reason you do this is so you can put your right foot down first and ahead of your left leg, which is unclipped from the pedal only at the last minute. Do it properly, and you can hit the ground running at full stride.

Putting your right foot down behind the left pedal is the lazy way out, but forces you to slow down more. You can't hit the ground in full stride.

Enjoy!