Cyclocross Club wanted

jamlala

Hi all, anyone know of a decent club for 'cross in the Brentwood/Chelmsford area? The BC website seems to show a distinct lack of said clubs in my area.

tgotb

JamLala wrote:

Hi all, anyone know of a decent club for 'cross in the Brentwood/Chelmsford area? The BC website seems to show a distinct lack of said clubs in my area.

Have a look at the results for some London/Eastern League races, and see what clubs people are riding for; that'll give you the best idea of which clubs are active. East London Velo and Basildon spring to mind, but there will be others.

Bear in mind that racing CX involves a certain amount of travel to get to races, so it's not as important to be a short ride away from the club's meeting point as it would be if your focus was Sunday club runs.

imposter2.0

JamLala wrote:

Hi all, anyone know of a decent club for 'cross in the Brentwood/Chelmsford area? The BC website seems to show a distinct lack of said clubs in my area.

There aren't really any 'cyclocross clubs' as such - most are just regular cycling clubs, which will usually have a CX contingent within them.

roastie_cyclocross

As mentioned I'm not aware of any specific CX clubs.

Maldon Cycling Club have CX races from Battlesbridge (SS11 7QR). You don't need to be a member to race and the first race of the winter series is this Sunday (looking forward to it), £3.50 per race I believe.

There is also the Eastern League, which has plenty of races around Essex. There is a race on 19/11 in Colchester which I will also be attending.

devhads

Chelmer CC host a race, usually first of the season, at Springfield Park. One of my favourites.

Plenty of Basildon CC racing in the Eastern League. A few Maldon riding too.

Moonbiker

join a mtb club

mtb skills are handy for cx

Chris James

Moonbiker wrote:

join a mtb club

mtb skills are handy for cx

As is road fitness

tgotb

Chris James wrote:

Moonbiker wrote:

join a mtb club

mtb skills are handy for cx

As is road fitness

Indeed.

If you're looking for people to travel to CX races with, to chat to at CX races, to practice riding off-camber mud with on a Wednesday evening in December, or with whom to share pit duties, you probably want a club with some active CX riders. Which is presumably why the OP asked.....

jamlala

TGOTB wrote:

Chris James wrote:

Moonbiker wrote:

join a mtb club

mtb skills are handy for cx

As is road fitness

Indeed.

If you're looking for people to travel to CX races with, to chat to at CX races, to practice riding off-camber mud with on a Wednesday evening in December, or with whom to share pit duties, you probably want a club with some active CX riders. Which is presumably why the OP asked.....

8) Pretty much spot on! Not many clubs too close to me with an 'active' CX section. One unnamed club claims it, but then their website CX page was last updated in 2002!

Chris James

Just look at the local league results. In Yorkshire most cross riders race for road clubs. There are some unattached riders who might be mountain bikers or maybe not members of clubs at all. The results will let you know which clubs are active - don't rely on a club website, most of them are a bit out of date and some are rather optimistic about what they would like to do, rather than what they currently do.

In the same way that road chain gangs tend to have participants from multiple clubs, typical cross training isn't usually based on a single club basis. In Yorkshire the Marley training sessions are well known, but near to me Wakefield tri put on coached sessions from summer until the end of October in Thornes Park, open to members of all clubs.

Cyclocross is a very friendly discipline so if you go to a few rounds then you tend to see the same faces and get on nodding / chatting terms anyway. I know my local league members better than I know the members of my own club - despite being on the committee!

tgotb

Another thing you could try would be to look at what clubs are organising races in the area - any club that promotes a CX race should be reasonably active. This will identify the ones with weird names that you might not have realised were local to you. Start with the Eastern League, but also check out London League too.

If you can get to Lee Valley, I think Hackney GT run a training session one weekday evening.

Final option (as Chris alludes to) - go to a few races and chat to people, find out what's going on. I know plenty of people who are the only members of their clubs racing CX, others who represent clubs miles from where they live/race. Plenty of riders form pit or car sharing partnerships with members of different clubs. Think of a CX league as a big club; you see the same people every weekend from September to January. I'm the same as Chris - on the committee of my club, but I know the members of my league better than I know the members of my club.

andyp

TGOTB wrote:

If you can get to Lee Valley, I think Hackney GT run a training session one weekday evening.

Wednesdays.

Moonbiker

There is a lack of places to ride any practice cx.

People don't like you destroying the grass on there parks playing fields & creating mud baths for some reason :evil:



Alot of landowners dog walker types hate/prohibit cyclists so practice has to be steathly unless you have acess to your own private cx course.

jamlala

Moonbiker wrote:

There is a lack of places to ride any practice cx.

People don't like you destroying the grass on there parks playing fields & creating mud baths for some reason :evil:



Alot of landowners dog walker types hate/prohibit cyclists so practice has to be steathly unless you have acess to your own private cx course.

Or mix up a bit where you go?!

roastie_cyclocross

My main aim when I go off exploring is to find a nice quiet hilly/technical section where I can simulate an hour race without having to worry about joggers, dog walkers, horses etc.

I see that you mentioned Brentwood JamLala earlier, so on the off chance you know anywhere in or around Thorndon Country Park or Langdon Hills I'm all ears.

tgotb

Moonbiker wrote:

There is a lack of places to ride any practice cx.

People don't like you destroying the grass on there parks playing fields & creating mud baths for some reason :evil:



Alot of landowners dog walker types hate/prohibit cyclists so practice has to be steathly unless you have acess to your own private cx course.

Plenty of places if you use a bit of imagination. We use the grass embankment beside a road, on the edge of a park. Good off-camber practice, illumination from streetlights, and no-one else uses it for anything, so no-one's likely to get upset with a little mud. NB: The embankment slopes *down* from the road, so if you fall off you end up in the park, not under a car!

There's also a BMX/bike track near me, couple of areas of relatively uncultivated common ground and several bridleways where you can train in daylight without upsetting anyone. This is in suburban SW London, you just have to go and look...

jamlala

Roastie_Cyclocross wrote:

My main aim when I go off exploring is to find a nice quiet hilly/technical section where I can simulate an hour race without having to worry about joggers, dog walkers, horses etc.

I see that you mentioned Brentwood JamLala earlier, so on the off chance you know anywhere in or around Thorndon Country Park or Langdon Hills I'm all ears.

Thorndon has some good trails, but mainly for mountain bikers I'd say. Although I have found repeatable sections that include a climb that I repeat half a dozen times or so.....ok 6 times and I'm gasping on the floor! These is a very long grassy steep hill section there too (Childerditch Hill Climb on Strava) which would be more for endurance than technical.

Very hard to avoid joggers, dog walkers and horses however!

roastie_cyclocross

Cheers, I usually ride around Langdon Hills when going off road as it's on my doorstep. I normally ride up Childerditch Lane from the A127 a couple of times a week when I commute to Brentwood by bike, so keep meaning to have a ride around Thorndon.