Cyclo Cross Barnard Castle Sunday 21st November 2010

Sunday morning saw the Bears first excursion in to the world of Cyclo Cross. Having signed up for the Yorkshire League back in September and taking delivery of the bikes in October we thought it about time we actually went and did a race. The Cross season runs from September through to February....ish so there is a race somewhere every weekend but somehow a wet morning in Bradford in the Yorkshire league didn’t seem that appealing so we decided we would travel over to Barnard Castle and enter Round 7 of the North East League instead. This race was recommended to us by one of our good friends in the Malton Wheelers so we loaded up the team van and 3 Bears and 1 Wheeler headed up the A1.

The race meet starts at 1030 with the under 8’s and under 12’s races running first. The main event kicks off at 1230 with the juniors, seniors and the vets all running in the same race.

We arrived at 1130 and went straight to registration. After unpacking the van it was time to get changed. The drive up had been a mixed bag of weather but it wasn’t raining for now but it was bitterly cold. Not sure on the racing etiquette I decided that full length lycra lowers would be a good choice given the chance of rain (and the high chance of mud) but I was not giving up the Zen so I would still be racing in a peak!

After kitting up we headed to the course for a practice lap. This was the first time the cross bike was going to be used in anger and with no shake down ride before hand the gears on the practice lap were jumping all over the place. The course was a mix or grass field and concrete/tarmac roads. There were 2 sections of hurdles (4 to 9 inch pieces of timber) which would force a dismount but other than that the course was pretty much all rideable ....for now.

After sorting out the gears I had all of them except granny, but seen as though I don’t usually need that one it would be fine? We headed for the start at the bottom of the course and with rider numbers in the 90’s it was going to be a crowd in the first couple of corners. Before long the whistle sounded and the race was on. As this was my first cross race and I was starting in the middle of the season I opted to start towards the back and see how far up the field I could get. Before we had crossed the line for the first time I was regretting that decision as I was already passing quite a few riders as the MTB XC skills of riding in mud were coming in quite useful, especially in the tight turns and off camber sections.

After a few laps and continuing to pass people the course was getting quite cut up. There had been a defined line around the circuit but this was getting progressively wider as people were struggling for grip. I quickly learned that the course was one of 2 halves. Spin smoothly on the grass pushing as hard as you could just to the point of losing it while standing out of the pedals on the road sections for a quick spurt of speed before braking like mad before a hairpin turn! - talk about lactate burn.

As the lap count on the line began to fall the course just got more and more slimy with more and more sections becoming quicker to run on. This was demonstrated to me by a few riders on some sections only for me to reel them back in and pass them on a straight again. It is not in my nature to run with a bike coming from a MTB background but eventually I had to succumb as the course was now unrideable in some sections and only just good enough to run on!

Remember I said I would need granny? Well guess what! With the bike getting more and more clogged up with mud and the course getting worse with every lap grip was becoming an issue now as I was just spinning up the rear wheel all the time on any sort of climb. All I could do was hold the gear lever in so that the chain would climb the cassette but with just too much mud on the bike it would not stay there. This did give me an automatic gearbox when granny was no longer required though, which was nice!

In the last couple of laps and the field now thinned out it came down to a game of cat & mouse between me and one of the local boys for what ever position I was now in. Eventually I made some clear air as his gears were skipping worse than mine and I crossed the line with the legs burning from the last uphill sprint to the finish.

Eventually I finished in 38th position completing 9 laps! To put this in to context only the top 10 did 10 laps and everyone else up to 40th did 9 laps so not too bad a result for my first ever cross race. The other bear results were Mark Hancock in 54th on 8 laps and Dave got a DNF when a loose cleat put his foot through the front wheel and he bust a spoke. Mathew from the Wheelers finished 15th.

Check out the race report on British Cycling’s website here - http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/cyclocross/article/cyx20101121-Report--CXNE-Round-7-0.

This has a couple of video clips on YouTube which give you a good sense of the race.

Also the leagues website and full results can be found here - http://www.cxne.org.uk/results.html

Mike.