The week: Location: Training for:
1-7 January 2024 Scotland and Spain Cyclo-cross World Champs (4 Feb)
Twenty-one-year-old Scot Corran Carrickanderson, who is the current British U23 cyclo-cross national champion, is following the Tom Pidcock route to success.
Coming from a mountain bike background, Carrick-anderson is a former junior national cross-country (XCO) champion. In his first year in cyclo-cross as an under-23, he won the 2021/22 National Trophy series in the elite category as well as his age category. He rode the Tour of Rwanda on the road in 2023 with a Great Britain team and, despite his preference for knobbly tyres, does much of his training on the smooth ones during the winter. The multi-talented rider spoke to us just a few days before the World CX Champs, where he finished 25th in the U23 race.
How has your cross season been so far?
The Nationals on 13 January were my first cross race of the year, and that went quite well [he was U23 winner and fourth elite] so I’m hoping I’m still getting better with each race and each session I do towards it.
What else have you been doing?
I raced the Hoogerheide World Cup on Sunday (28 Jan) and finished 14th in my category. It was a bit of a step up from the Nationals; I was still a little rusty for cross but hopefully that opened me up for this weekend [the Worlds].
What’s the split at the top level of cyclo-cross between roadies and mountain bikers?
They do come from both backgrounds. There’s not many mountain bikers I’m racing. In my category, a lot of them are focusing on cross, but most come from road rather than mountain biking, and a lot who start in cross move to the road. Not many start in cross and move to mtb.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of an mtb background?
For mountain biking, you need to be pretty skilled, and even though the skills are different in cross, you’re more adaptable as a rider. Cross skills are pretty specific so when roadies come across and learn them, it’s good, but it’s easier to just snap into them from mtb.
What are you like on the road? How was the Tour of Rwanda?
It was a great experience and I was grateful to be able to go there, but I was not very well prepared and it definitely
PROFILE Age: Height:
21
5ft 10in 350-360W (estimated) Peebles, Scottish Borders British Cycling 18th U23 – MTB World Championships (2023); 1st U23 – UK National CX Championships (2024)
FTP: Lives: Team: Best results:
hit me pretty hard. I struggled with every part of that race. It was crazy!
Did it give you some good form for the rest of 2023?
To be honest, it probably did the opposite. It took me a good while to turn it around, which I managed by the end of the mountain bike season, thankfully.
So where are you going in the future? Not the road?
I would still love to try and race properly on the road but my main focus is still mountain biking, as that’s what I enjoy, but I do try to keep cross up in the winter. This year I’ve done a little bit less just because I wanted to see how that would impact my mountain bike season, but if they do still tie nicely together, I would definitely like to keep up the cross in winter.