So I thought with so many of the Central CX riders jet setting across the UK and Europe I to thought I’d try and slip in a cheeky update on how everyone did (If I’ve missed you out please FB / Tweet / WP and let me know and I’ll edit it).

No witty shit box updates (that will be in Round 12 RJR) or team banter, just a micro-blog with some deets on the CX Superheros !!!

First up the Masters World Champs. Golders (Masters roving reporter) sent through the following “article:

I write as part of what I do for a living so this should be easy… Hmmm turns out it’s much harder to write for me than for my clients!

Anyway I’m not proofing this as I’m not paid to – velo bants you can! so enjoy and excuse the typos as i sit typing on my iPhone after a dream day.

Today I competed at the Masters Cyclocross World Championships…

Honestly it’s still a bit surreal.

For those of you that don’t know it’s a bit like age group triathlon, you enter to race on a course that the Pro/Elite riders before they race on Sunday… And they will ride- not run like I did!!!

So rewind a bit, I was so jealous when I saw all the posts from Greg, Roy and Jacko last year that I decided to go to Belgium.

Then I decided (after a 8 month illness – yes I know my friends are sick of hearing about it ) no I’m not fit enough for the masters let alone the world’s. Then I remembered how jealous I was last year, got a boat-load of support from the boys, stopped moaning and got on with it!

OMFG I’m so glad I did!

The journey over was surprisingly easy. I was more nervous about driving on the right

Apart from being cornered by a dodgy scammer on the side of the Belgian motorway to give him money ‘for diesel to get to Brussels’ and rescued by a couple of gay guys from Manchester I arrived in one piece.

The b&b was fantastic, our hosts set up bike washing for me and the American guys also staying there took me to ride the course at 10am the next day, They’d ridden it most days so I was hoping I could sneak on… And I did. It was so much fun, not like anything I’ve ever done. I ran really well and loved the course even though it was hard. #complacent #nevergood

Race day arrives and although I wanted to be good the three course breakfast was too good to pass up… Especially as Kirstien and Peter had bought goat’s cheese and coconut yogurt especially for me (Dairy-free W )

I arrived at the venue and rode the course with Greg and Dan who were amazing and really supportive. Spencer was in charge of pit requirements and Theresa was in charge of overall logistics and my warm up… I was told in no uncertain terms that my usual central league warm up of a cup of tea and a chat while number pinning was not going to cut it!

I struggled a bit with one section to which Spencer put my bike back over the barrier and told me to try it again! I was glad I did! In the race that extra practice paid off!

The Race

There are no words for how hard the race was. I was glad the next day to see how much it hurt the boys too!!

As the whistle went for the 30-34’s I realised I was in the wrong gear… School boy error! Theresa spotted my look along panic but it was too late to do anything about it or risk dropping my chain.

I went into the first bend last, not ideal from first gridded – I manage to catch rider number 18 pretty early on and just remember thinking, yes I’m not going to be last!

Throughout the race I had a bit of a battle with rider number 16 which really helped me to keep pushing on.

The first two laps were really hard but went as I had hoped/planned.

By lap three I was really struggling, I had been looking forward to the running but I was so in the red after each running section that I hadn’t recovered for the next section. As my central league race friends know I usually love the running sections in our races but I was really dreading them at this point.

I totally fudged a remount near the pits which Spencer got to watch and number 16 pulled away from me.

Lap four was just about survival, i could jump on the bike, to be honest I’m not sure I even knew my own name!!I couldn’t get my HR up as my legs were trashed from running in the deep sand. I must say a huge thanks to Siobhan, Neil, Gav and Mike for keeping my spirits up at the end of that section. I’d definitely have walked if you lot hadn’t been watching!!

I crossed the finish in 8th place and was pleased to see number 16 that had kept me chasing her.

Our bikes were checked for motor doping and I was free to go and catch my breath. I have never raced that hard before!

The American crew at the B&B Jim, Lisa, Ryan and Melissa for Rule #5 cycling club provided great support out on the course and lots of great pictures!

I’ll be back next year with lots learnt, including running file treads instead of mud tyres. My room at

http://www.molmento.be is already booked! It feels like a home from home after just a few days. Thank you Peter and Kristien!

Dan Connall – Corleys Cycles – 62

Mike Jackson – Luton CC – 44

Neil Ellison – DNF

Greg – Corleys Cycles – 24

Suzanne Golder – Team MK – 8th

Some pics below, the course looked absolutely brutal. We caught up with the winner at Oxford today and he said….on a lap lasting around 7m 30…..you were running 3m 30s !! Holy shit !!

Sand….sand….more sand….steep muddy climbs….steep muddy droppers….sand….steps….AWESOME effort to these superheroes !!!

REGIONALS

Now onto the Regionals, which for most saw a back to back race weekend, certainly a first for Kevvo & Tommo). With so many riders coming from far and wide within the Central CX League we have a number of different results from different leagues (apologies if I’ve got it wrong please let me know)

Now lets start with CENTRAL Region. It was held at Abingdon Barracks, and lucky for Kevvo and I we had raced the Summer Series with Take3Tri. Big shout out to Mark Harvey and his guys, they did a grand job with the course, it was definitely a course of 2 halves. Similar to Kettering yesterday, it sort of played to Kevvos and I’s strength as we come from the an MTB background (we only started to ride CX as we had pretty much won everything MTB related (thats a LIE).

We decided to arrive super early to grab a great spot for Team SD……they arrvied shortly after us in the Team Bus….

Steve P and Paul Buckley were inside, James Norris a few cars down……plus someone clearly locked in the attic of the bus for party pieces !!

Its good to see he’s a fully paid up member mind you.

Is that what is meant by “Grannies Tea Towel holder”

The coffee van was spectacular……

Back to the course….the first half of the course was through the grass field adjacent to the runway, it included lots of twisties and with the adhesion getting progressively worse as the race went on, staying in the vertical position was getting harder and harder. The second half of the course uses lots of small bomb holes, and again, the mud was pretty sticky by this point and this made for a pretty technical course, full focus was required to prevent you hitting the deck on the off camber / muddy sections. I got excited about the hurdles at one point, but then realised they were on the kids course !

Cheeky pre-race-gridding bants with Team SD:

Anyhow, first surprise of the day was the relatively above average gridding spot that Kevvo and I received. I was third row and Kevvo directly behind me. Second surprise of the day was the alarming amount of people who couldn’t actually make it to the start line without riding through the unbreakable tape…..you know who you are !

So, you know the drill, whistle goes, we offski. Now, brass instrument blowing again…cue fanfair….I had a blinder of a start….not entirely sure how, probably down to some kind of teleportation, I hit the first corner in 4th ! WTF…nose bleed started straight away, however the bonus was that I was OK on the twisties, so managed to keep this position for as many digital images from the spectating photographers as poss. I think I headed back on to the tarmac in 6th. I could see Kevvo on the twistys, also having a blinder…..Get in, I’m thinking; some local knowledge paying dividends for TeamVB. this could end well above average !

Once thrown out on a tarmac stint for around 50m, you then head down to enter the mini bomb hole fest. This part lasts for around 3 minutes, full of small off camber ups and downs, all super slippy, some little kickers, also some hurdles out near the tarmac where a bunch of yooofs were standing ready to throw some banter our way. Not sure how that went, as Kevvo did have a coming together with ankle bone +bike + hurdle …that must have attracted an “oooohhhh” as a minimum from said yoofs, it looked like a medical impossibility of how he managed to continue (seriously the smallest scuff I’ve ever seen !)

First incidental was relatively soon after entering the bumhole area. A rider with a stunning pink skin suit got caught up in the red tape on a slippy off camber…..tape wiped out his rear mech – spiel ist aus !! He threw about 5 super loud F8&Ks (potty mouth)……then literally launched his bike about 20 yards into a ditch !! Yikes…..must have still been bitter about my awesome start.

Then followed about 10 or so ups and down, all in their own right a bit of a handful as you really had to pick the right line, the final piece of the bumhole spat you out on a long stretch back to the tarmac…..this was generally the area where the fitties amongst us were gunning it to make up places. Mike Mulroy, off of ‘Here Come the Belgians’ was behind me at this point so I kindly waved him past – LIE !

Back on the grass field, there was a sand pit shortly after the entrance, then round to the start / finish timing mat, then to start it all again. Awesome course, really played on the CX skills. THUMBS UP EMOJI to Mark !

Kevvo suffered with flat on the last 2 laps where he lost 2 places…..gutted ! Those tubeless burping gremlins were out again but still finished like a trooper.

All positions are in age category:

40 – 45 James Norris – 9th

45 – 49 Mike Mulroy – 6th

40 – 45 Tommo – 12th

40-45 Kevvo – 15th

40-45 Julian Thrasher – 13th

40-45 Paul Buckley 17th

45-49 James S-B – 9th !!! Good work that man !!

Steve P had a puncture on lap 1 after a lightening quick first lap !!

We missed Michael Pattinson from recent tree / head / bike smash combo which took place at Kettering. Shame, you would’ve smashed it here !

SNR – Ross Gallacher – 25th (Always turns up in force representing LBRCC – good show that man !!)

SNR – Jacob Tresham – Corley Cycles – 7th

SNR – Kieran Jaret – RAF – 9th

SNR – Dan Brennan – LBRCC 12th

SNR – Leigh Smith – Equipe Velo – 13th

A shortage of pics from our race on the the day, obvs there was no Molli Keenor / KP / Gary Neeson. You will note new VB Hoody and matching BBH. Carbing up !

Proper arty that shit:

Elated from our final positioning, Kevvo and I stayed around to support with bants…..we weren’t going to until we saw TIMBAILEY in THE best skin suit EVER. Think Zoolander meets Hunger Games….I swear at one point he span round and he was on fire ! Luckily some foresight was pre-booked and Kevvo bought some Punk IPA.

So VET50 and the ladies were off next.

Another great turn out from Sam, Julia and Gwen from Team MK. The guys included TIMBAILEY, Boovy, Roy C and John Risby.

Results below in age group cat:

Roy C – Corleys- 3rd

Tim B – Team Corleys – 5th (flats / bike change last 2 laps I think)

Mark B – Corley Cycles – 1st (went through the entire pit of bikes – super unlucky)

John Risby – Team MK – 1st

WMN SNR – Julia – Team MK – 3rd

WMN SNR – Gwen – Team MK – 8th

WMN VET – Zoe Allsop – Lovelo – 1st

WMN VET – Sam – Team MK – 3rd

WMN VET – Sarah Cox – Bicester – 9th

WMN VET – Carol Matthews – Bicester – 10th

WMN VET – Wendy Rees – Bicester – 2nd

Some snaps to boot:

Managed to film these 2 superstars….Mark and TIMBAILEY. Skills on the hurdles. I think Tim took about 2 strides between them !!

Some other results just in from other regions:

Woodsy secured a solid 47th in the Eastern & South Eastern Region

John Cavill – 17th

Tony Marriott 19th

BOOOOM !!!! Good work fellas !

Results from Gaz in Scottish regionals representing Velobants. Now I knew off the bat this may not end that well….seeing as the Whatsapp group was getting progressively worse Sat night due to the amount of IPA / Red Win Gaz was consuming. His quote:

“Too much wine, too much breakfast meant almost spewing first 3 laps. Strong field. Finished 40th.”

Now to place this in some kind of realistic CX context, Gaz’s races are generally not like ours…..they are basically all mud fests ! You know its going to be tough when the email the day earlier to all riders actually details how difficult the ROADS getting to the event are to pass with snow !! Pics of the morning were basically showing people with shovels trying to find the course !! More to follow.

Some top quotes of the day for VB:

Managed to get the World Champion on Facebook Live…..I told him Kevvo was also a WC….he actually believed me for 3 seconds…..

Guy at finishing line “thing about CX racing is that its competitive where ever you are”…..

Steve P ref next years Worlds and transport via the SD Team Bus…”problem is lads you need a vehicle guaranteed to actually get us there”

Steve P – generally the best thing ever when he showed us pics of “Fat Steve”….thats all I have to say on the matter !

I shit you not this was him 3 years and about 5 stone ago !! He literally just Forest Gumped the crap out of his bike and nobody saw him for 6 months, now he’s the athletic adonis we all love #buff #6packinthevets

Ian T having a heart attack and quickly disappearing as we were handing up Punk IPA to passing riders.

Happy Birthday to Keeno:

REGIONALS

Share this: