the Cyclo cross racing post

MikeWW

Did my first flood lit cross race last night over at Leicester-really good fun. Started on the cinder speedway circuit, took in part of a BMX track, banks, hurdles, went indoors at one point-ace fun.
Not sure where I finished but a fast race

coopster_the_1st

[Tim] wrote:

Well I failed to make it to swindon tonight due to van hire confusion but on the plus side turns out I finished 29/60 at the oxford race on saturday. Since I started DFL I passed 30 people! I'll call that a good start to my cross career!

I had my first CX race at Oxford and it was an eye opener at how hard it is. Could well be my hardest hour of riding on a bike! Coming from the road, I was surprised at how technical the course was (I did not expect the big grassy drops)

I would have been one of those 30 people you passed. I started well mid-pack but by the end of the 1st lap my lungs could not cash the cheques my legs were asking and I slowly drifted backwards to finish 57th.

On the plus side, the roads felt velvet smooth on the following days club run

FransJacques

Quick question on the Eastern League course this weekend at Baldock. Does anyone know what the venue is like? i.e. hilly, flat, grassy, among trees, etc.

Thinking of going up, it's not far from central London.

Thanks in advance.

hammerite

FransJacques wrote:

Quick question on the Eastern League course this weekend at Baldock. Does anyone know what the venue is like? i.e. hilly, flat, grassy, among trees, etc.

Thinking of going up, it's not far from central London.

Thanks in advance.

I think it's the same place as I did my first ever CX race 2 seasons ago. Flat and grassy around a school field mainly. There were a couple of banks with off camber turns and two/three mounds to go over. One was an off and carry, the others were rideable. Obviously it depends how they configure the course.

If I remember rightly I had a similar experience to Coopster, except I started at the back and finished at the back. Thought I was going to have a heart attack for a couple of hours after. I did win a sprint finish with a guy I was coming up to lap.... I think he was also the only other person behind me!

FransJacques

Good sales job there, Hammerite :-) Now I'm not so sure...

Benjamin Hall

Wessex league rnd 2 was hilarious. I spent more time on my back sliding across the mud than I did in the saddle. 24th for me. My start was rubbish!!

Top 20 in that league is my goal for next time.

Next race is the Western league round 2 this Sunday, unless someone knows of a race in the south on Saturday?

hammerite

FransJacques wrote:

Good sales job there, Hammerite :-) Now I'm not so sure...

Don't take the description of how I felt as a gauge, I'm a lot more comfortable in CX races now. Definitely worth going to to race.

cjcp

Anyone racing at Hillingdon tomorrow? First race of the season for me, so should be amusing.

FransJacques

Baldock was a good course for what the oranizers had to work with. I was impressed with it. On top of it, it was dry with tons of grip so the cornering was fun with the right tyre pressure. Had a very middling result (mid-20s) because I lacked power on the flats due to a bad warm up. It was won by 2 junior national level riders who flew by me on the last lap.

Not unlike Baldock, Happy Valley yesterday was similar if a bit more interesting. Racing Saturday luckily didn't dull the legs too much and I was able to catch and pass 4 riders out of a group of 5 that was dangling in front of me for 4-5 laps. Nice fast course won by Darren Barclay (again).

DavidBelcher

I rode at Hillingdon yesterday afternoon, tough work and a surprisingly warm day (so it seemed) but really enjoyed the event. Threw everything I had at it but sill came in only 85th out of 101 finishers, thought I'd have done better than that but then it was my first one of the season and I started near the very back of the bunch. Not sure if the circuit was shorter than normal but everyone seemed to be lapping faster than usual (3-4 mins in my case), but that could have been due to the dry conditions.

Despite the low placing, I might risk sending in a Central affiliation form and seeing how I get on in some of the other events and indeed overall in the series. Hoping for better things by the time my next Central outing (Brackley) comes around, in the meantime I start my Wessex campaign this coming Sunday at Eastleigh and my club (Sotonia) are the promoting outfit! Apart from a couple of wooded bits and a sand trap (parts of the race will be run over a disused golf course using one of the old bunkers!!) the course does have some similar features to Hillingdon so yesterday was quite good practice in hindsight....

David

hammerite

I think you came past me just before I dropped out David. I had a shocker, paying for not riding a bike much over the last couple of months, you can't really hide in cross and any lack of fitness is clearly evident! I ended up DNFing as I hurt my back a couple of weeks ago and was in quite a bit of discomfort, not helped by the course being so bumpy.

I think I'm re-evaluating my cross season. Will probably not race until towards the end of the season and just get some miles in my legs. Might plan an assault of some winter road race leagues instead.

DavidBelcher

hammerite wrote:

I think you came past me just before I dropped out David. I had a shocker, paying for not riding a bike much over the last couple of months, you can't really hide in cross and any lack of fitness is clearly evident! I ended up DNFing as I hurt my back a couple of weeks ago and was in quite a bit of discomfort, not helped by the course being so bumpy.

I think I'm re-evaluating my cross season. Will probably not race until towards the end of the season and just get some miles in my legs. Might plan an assault of some winter road race leagues instead.

I definitely recall passing someone in a BRCC jersey in the closing laps. A dry Hillingdon is a very different kettle of fish to a wet one, and that hard, bumpy ground yesterday proved quite demanding on spines, arms, wrists and bums.

On the plus side, due to the lack of moisture, at least no-one's rear mech seemed to end up looking like a Flymo grassbox....

David

simon t

Rode Purdown yesterday, hard work!

cjcp

DavidBelcher wrote:

hammerite wrote:

I think you came past me just before I dropped out David. I had a shocker, paying for not riding a bike much over the last couple of months, you can't really hide in cross and any lack of fitness is clearly evident! I ended up DNFing as I hurt my back a couple of weeks ago and was in quite a bit of discomfort, not helped by the course being so bumpy.

I think I'm re-evaluating my cross season. Will probably not race until towards the end of the season and just get some miles in my legs. Might plan an assault of some winter road race leagues instead.

I definitely recall passing someone in a BRCC jersey in the closing laps. A dry Hillingdon is a very different kettle of fish to a wet one, and that hard, bumpy ground yesterday proved quite demanding on spines, arms, wrists and bums.

On the plus side, due to the lack of moisture, at least no-one's rear mech seemed to end up looking like a Flymo grassbox....

David

I remember a BRCC jersey. I was on a blue Kona Jake, with gears grinding like hell, no club kit on. Relieved to have finished as I got my psi wrong last time and flatted in the bumpy, middle section.

@hammerite - I'd stick at it. If it's any consolation, I was a bit of a mess at the end.

hammerite

I think I'm going to give the next 3 races a miss to try and get a bit fitter then aim to be back for the A5 Rangers race. If I do that one I can still get the 6 races in to get a league position. There's a two week gap after the A5 race between races to get that little bit fitter too.

FransJacques

Ok, another Wednesday, another post inquiring as to what the Welwyn venue for this Saturday's EL race is like?

Last weekend both Happy Valley and Baldock were beautiful, soft grassy very flat fields with plenty of grip. What's in store for Welwyn?

Cheers in advance.

Boleynboy

Anyone else not happy with the revised results for Happy Valley last Sunday in the London and South East League. Major differences between the first results posted on Cross Crazy and the revised one on the London League website. I have dropped down 7 places, but a female Kingston Wheelers rider I raced practically the whole race with until she sprinted away from me in the last 300m ended up 12 places and a lap up on me!

ratsbeyfus

Boleynboy wrote:

Anyone else not happy with the revised results for Happy Valley last Sunday in the London and South East League. Major differences between the first results posted on Cross Crazy and the revised one on the London League website. I have dropped down 7 places, but a female Kingston Wheelers rider I raced practically the whole race with until she sprinted away from me in the last 300m ended up 12 places and a lap up on me!

You can email the organiser if you can show that they've miscounted your laps or something (link on london cyclo-x website). They put me down one lap short, but like the sad git I am I emailed the organiser with a link to my strava data showing I did one extra lap, and he was happy to update results. Still not in top 100 though :oops: Never mind, it was my first ever cross race and surely the only way is up!

Boleynboy

ratsbeyfus wrote:

Boleynboy wrote:

Anyone else not happy with the revised results for Happy Valley last Sunday in the London and South East League. Major differences between the first results posted on Cross Crazy and the revised one on the London League website. I have dropped down 7 places, but a female Kingston Wheelers rider I raced practically the whole race with until she sprinted away from me in the last 300m ended up 12 places and a lap up on me!

You can email the organiser if you can show that they've miscounted your laps or something (link on london cyclo-x website). They put me down one lap short, but like the sad git I am I emailed the organiser with a link to my strava data showing I did one extra lap, and he was happy to update results. Still not in top 100 though :oops: Never mind, it was my first ever cross race and surely the only way is up!

Thanks for your reply, I'm glad I am not the only one who has had issues. From the long que to sign on(which I have never experienced before) to the issuing of hand written numbers I began to have doubts about the level of organisation at this race. I know it takes a hell of a lot of time and prep to organise a race, but we are paying £12(or £15 without a license) to enter these races, and should expect a certain level of organisation, i.e, getting the results right!
Tbh, i cannot prove my laps and placing are wrong, but i do know who I raced with from the first lap, and my placing is defo wrong, but then we are talking toward the back end of the race rather than the front so maybe I should stop being so precious!
By the way, if it was your first race you picked a fast, dry one! They are not all as rapid, dry and untechnical as Sunday, and the muddier, technical races tend to be a tad slower, but not by much. I only started last season, and I am never going to a contender, but I have got the bug so stick with it and you will improve!

hammerite

Boleynboy wrote:

From the long que to sign on(which I have never experienced before) to the issuing of hand written numbers I began to have doubts about the level of organisation at this race. I know it takes a hell of a lot of time and prep to organise a race, but we are paying £12(or £15 without a license) to enter these races, and should expect a certain level of organisation, i.e, getting the results right!

Good organisation is free. All races will have similar costs for hiring the venue, buying kit, riders levies, race registration etc....

Having worked on lap counting/results it's a pretty stressful job and easy for things to go wrong. However, given there are usually a couple of people doing the same thing (as back up) it's usually pretty easy to track where things went wrong - like one lap taking 16 minutes when all the others took the rider 8 mins. E-mail the organiser and just tell them which riders you think you finished close to, it might be easy for them to track where it's wrong. Sometimes they're not aware until someone queries it.

PuttyKnees

Yep, almost impossible for the results to be right first time. Even chip timing results are often wrong for some reason. Just send them a polite email and ask for it to be looked at.

andyp

My result was wrongly recorded too. I spent most of the race in a three way scrap with two other riders and in the initial results we'd been given places 35, 60-something and 98th! I emailed the organiser, gave as much detail as I could about where I was on each lap, who I was racing with and where we were in relation to the leaders (we were lapped by the first three on the last lap and a half) and he very kindly revised the results so we're in the correct place.

Having done lap counting at Muddy Hell on a couple of occasions, I've nothing but respect for those that do it as it is a difficult job that goes unseen by most. I think riders should always try and keep an eye on who they are racing with each lap, so if you are wrongly listed in the results you can provide lots of detail to the organiser to help them correct the results.

I got plenty of practice in last year as I must've been wrongly categorised in close to 50% of the London League rounds I rode, but it was corrected each time.

FransJacques

Eastern League organization continues to impress! Results up 4 hours after the race, multo impressivo: http://www.easterncross.org.uk/race12-13-5.htm

Very slow going course on water-logged grass made it really hard work with lap times in the high 7 minutes for most. Except the winner who was raging around in the 6:50s. Amazing.

Will probably give Herne Hill a miss tomorrow and do a long road ride instead...

DavidBelcher

Did anyone else give the Wessex League event at Eastleigh a go yesterday? Being a member of the promoting club I'm bound to be biased, but I had a great day out and thought we did OK for what was effectively a first-time promotion (the club hasn't run a CX race since the '70s). It was a tough course with some energy-sapping uphill sections, the warm weather making it that little bit more taxing; apart from the sand pit - never been a big fan of sand - I managed to ride all of it without resorting to carrying/pushing the bike. I was slightly lucky since riding in the Senior race meant that the course didn't get quite so cut-up and tricky in places compared to the Juniors'/Vets'/Women's event after it. I think I placed about 25th eventually out of a small field of 30 riders, having had a decent "race within a race" against my fellow back-markers.
The general consensus in the club is that it was a well-received event and riders liked the course, so the chance of a re-run for the 2013-2014 is already looking strong! The other added bonus for me is that the venue is nice and close to home, so I rode out from Winchester by way of a warm-up.

David

Monty Dog

David, I raced the Vets race so enjoyed a field of 80-odd riders. As I haven't raced this year, I started at the back, managing to work my way through the field to finish somewhere in the top-20 which wasn't bad considering my lack of training. Great course - far tougher than it looked and wide enough in place to make passing possible. I had one rider trying to 'block' me going through the trees as he kept cutting me off as I tried to go around the outside - by which time I had already passed about 30 riders. Thankfully the long uphill drag soon put paid to this nonsense.

Benjamin Hall

Sundays race, Round 3 of the Western league. Not the best result, but it's all good training.

http://ifonlyiwerebelgian.com/2012/10/0 ... s-is-like/

DavidBelcher

Monty Dog wrote:

David, I raced the Vets race so enjoyed a field of 80-odd riders. As I haven't raced this year, I started at the back, managing to work my way through the field to finish somewhere in the top-20 which wasn't bad considering my lack of training. Great course - far tougher than it looked and wide enough in place to make passing possible. I had one rider trying to 'block' me going through the trees as he kept cutting me off as I tried to go around the outside - by which time I had already passed about 30 riders. Thankfully the long uphill drag soon put paid to this nonsense.

Glad you thought the club had come up with a good course. We did have to tweak the chicane by the refreshment tent part way through your race to give people a better choice of lines once the ground started cutting up and a few people started skidding into tapes and stakes! Feedback from other riders has been good, comparisons are being made with the Prospect Park course at Reading, which I'd go along with, except less woodland and without that uber-steep ascent/descent (a barrel of laughs in wet weather....not) that PP has near the finish and pit areas.

David

DavidBelcher

Benjamin Hall wrote:

Sundays race, Round 3 of the Western league. Not the best result, but it's all good training.

http://ifonlyiwerebelgian.com/2012/10/0 ... s-is-like/

Good blog post there. Not sure I agree with the view that the blokes at the back of the field are solely there for a lark, though - I suffered like anything yesterday just to come 5th or 6th from last out of a field of 30 seniors. Looking back on it, I did enjoy the race however, since I chucked everything I had at it and didn't slacken off at all, so was pleased with my efforts from that point of view. As an added bonus, I found out this afternoon that my endeavours will also be getting a mention plus photo in the local paper (mainly 'cause of being the only senior from the promoting club than actually doing a noteworthy ride; in contrast we did have a decent presence amongst the juniors & vets)!

David

simon t

Benjamin Hall wrote:

Sundays race, Round 3 of the Western league. Not the best result, but it's all good training.

http://ifonlyiwerebelgian.com/2012/10/0 ... s-is-like/

Benjamin

It might be worth getting the tub repaired

Benjamin Hall

simon t wrote:

It might be worth getting the tub repaired

I was thinking about that, any ideas as to where?

DavidBelcher wrote:

Good blog post there. Not sure I agree with the view that the blokes at the back of the field are solely there for a lark, though - I suffered like anything yesterday just to come 5th or 6th from last out of a field of 30 seniors. Looking back on it, I did enjoy the race however, since I chucked everything I had at it and didn't slacken off at all, so was pleased with my efforts from that point of view. As an added bonus, I found out this afternoon that my endeavours will also be getting a mention plus photo in the local paper (mainly 'cause of being the only senior from the promoting club than actually doing a noteworthy ride; in contrast we did have a decent presence amongst the juniors & vets)!

Hello mate, I didnt mean to belittle any riders in any way. There are always some guys there who really are just riding for a laugh. Or at least there have been at the races ive done.

I dont want to break it to you but if you are giving it all youve got to make up places then you fall in to the middle category so its time to buy yourself a skinsuit and some dugasts!

Thanks for reading folks.