Having stumbled across the Eastern CycloCross Race at Grafham Water see report (www.britishcycling.org.uk/cyclocross/article/cyx20131201-Cross--Cotton-threads-his-way-to-victory-in-Eastern-League-0) last winter whilst out on my mountain bike I was struck by two ridiculous thoughts:
- that looks like bloody good fun, and
- how hard could it be?
To that end I now find myself having registered with the league and signed-up to race throughout the winter in glamorous locations such as Basildon, Colchester, Ilford, Chelmsford, Welwyn Garden City, Thurrock & Ipswich; all truly exotic locations guaranteed to set the pulse racing. However, of more pressing concern to me than the architectural & cultural delights of the venues I'll soon be visiting was a complete lack of experience of 'cross racing; in fact bad habits learned over years (OK, decades) of hooning around on mountain bikes probably makes me worse than completely inexperienced. So starting from such a low baseline I thought the best thing I could do was to find someone silly enough to put me through my paces and try to teach me a few 'skillz' ahead of my race debut.... and thats how I found myself last weekend at Hillingdon Cycle Track on a British Cycling 'Cyclo Cross Rider Development Event', which at £10 for 6 hours of coaching and racing, together with full 'clubhouse' facilities (including as much coffee as I could drink) seemed like pretty good value to me. Unfortunately, as her with the leg-warmers from Fame once (almost) said "You want to CX race, right here is where you start paying........in sweat"
The day was a non-stop series of coaching, drills and races; with each successive race serving two purposes; firstly to put into practice the last thing we'd been taught, and secondly to give the coaches an idea of respective abilities ahead of a series of final races to give us a better idea of what we would be letting ourselves in for. Sessions covered race starts, cornering techniques, dismounts and carrying the bike up silly slopes / over obstacles, together with a few of the 'dark arts' that just about stay the right side of the gamesmanship / cheating divide.
As the day drew to a close, I found myself on the second row of the start and whether only I went on the 'B' of Bang or just managed to get my pedals turning quicker than everyone else, I found myself at the head of the field going into the first corner. It was at this point that having the turning circle of an oil tanker was (for once) an advantage as I managed to complete the first lap without anyone having been able to get past. However,any delusions of adequacy were soon shattered as I was dropped down to second and then taken out by a 'win or bin' move by the third-placed rider which left both of us on the ground as others rode past / around (and possibly over) us. Battered, bloody and absolutely knackered, I managed to take back a few places and by the end had made it up to 6th (or possibly 8th), but genuinely didn't have the energy to go and find out.
Overall, it was great fun, but possibly the most energy-sapping thing I've ever done: there was nowhere I could take a breather as not only did the course mean I was always sprinting out of corners / climbing steep banks but with low-pressure knobbly tyres giving great traction on the mud & grass, when I stopped pedalling the bike quickly stopped moving. I would highly recommend it to anyone and British Cycling together with several clubs and leagues) will be doing similar sessions throughout the winter - and even have a fleet of Pinarellos for riders without their own bikes.
Simon R
You can just see Simon's race face peeping out from behind the Twickenham rider