nah, it spilled over into your tyre thread which is what brought me here!

the hilly mound was well used with a steep slippy chalky climb (which if you could ride you made up places on those that carried and then struggled to clip in) and quite a few off-camber corners. Good fun course and amazing weather again (done 4 of the Central League now). I had a good race in V40, came first out of the 3 of our club (BMCC) that are closely matched and having our own private race, but probably my best place overall and hopefully nudging top 10 (from being ceded on back row due to having never raced for round 1 I’m now up to 2nd row, typically been 80 in V40 which is our biggest cat). Munqe Chick won the women. Again 8)

MC’s JIF buddies reported over 20 ripped off rear mechs on FB (either mech or hanger failed) as a result of mud+grass = birds nest in the sprocket. Looks like we’re spoiled in Central!

I see they still aren’t willing to split the Welsh league down into slightly smaller fields?

We clearly are certainly very spoilt in Central League. Isn’t it Gorseinon this Sunday for you Welshies? We are at wedding Sat night and I was tempted but it’s driving the wrong way to return home to Oxford later that night. Plus having raced 5 CX weekends in a row (last weekend the doubler too) I am shattered and need a week off to recover!!!!!

Absolutely love it though!!

You’d better believe it!

(I can’t make it out earlier on Wednesday sorry. If you go over there you’ll be distinctly unimpressed with the venue but they make it into a good course though.)

I raced Gorseinon last year is it the same course? If so it will be PROPER manky think I will give it a miss! If I was going to race I’d make the effort to get back up here for Central league but I actually think I need a week off my legs are battered!

Look forward to seeing you at Gorseinon, Ferrals.
I had a little restorative break over in France so missed Carms. I like MM, it’s an involving course.
Glad to hear you’re getting some bite from the tyres.

Anyone doing the CX mountain event at llandovery on the 15th November?

Ah! I did see you, there was another caker there as well?
Normally there’d be more riders but it was a combination of a 2 race weekend and National Trophy on Sunday, so was the smallest field of the year.
The spiral is not the preferred option in a venue with so much area to ride in. I prefer the double-double kidney that I used when I promoted Archer races at Hillingdon. Also some cheeky reducing radius corners to force braking/ change of pace and maybe the odd dead stop turn!
Next Comm for me will be Sussex London league after Xmas.

After starting to road race last year, I dug my MTB out having ridden it about 6 times since I bought it in 2011, to race some of the Central League CX races. Did the Novice at the MK Bowl 2 weeks ago and came 1st, and entered the senior race last week. Great fun! Inspired to get back on the MTB in general!

Great course at Liverpool yesterday – narrow with singletrack sections, couple of sharp-ish climbs close together. Felt like one of the harder courses this year for intense phases, but there were places you could recover (a bit!). I’ve found the fast, open courses more difficult in general.

I finally remembered to screw in some toe studs on my shoes for this race – felt like it made a big difference on the run-ups.

I replaced a CXO with Michelin Mud for the Sparsholt race today and still ended up on my arse. So weather dependent I’d say.

If you mean the Eastleigh round in a couple of weeks, its moved to Southampton Sports Centre.

[/url]Vet men by Huw Williams, on Flickr[/img]

Love this pic! That’s me in the Singular kit, chasing down the Evans rider.

I really didn’t enjoy Ardingly yesterday, it felt as if there were no recovery sections just constant effort for an hour. Probably more to do with me than the course though, I spent the whole race wanting to pull out.

In the later stages yes, ran it the last three laps (didn’t have any choice on the final lap!)

I got slower and slower. Stopped to clean mud and grass out of the frame but didn’t realise until the end that my jockey wheels were about to seize up, packed with grass! Another lap and I would have done the same as David, I reckon.
In theory, the guy without his back wheel should be dq’d. Good effort and all that but the rules say you need to complete the course with a whole bike.(If he was behind me then fine, but if he beat me…. where’s the complaint form? :D)

One of the things I like about Welsh League is that Liz enforces the spirit of the rules rather than following them to the letter. Although I did wonder how that happened – was it a conscious ‘I know, I’ll just chuck my rear wheel in a bush to lighten the load a bit’ decision, and if so why stop at one wheel 😉

Anyway I reeled him and dropped him on the last lap, thereby winning the bike carrying category, for which there didn’t seem to be a podium sadly.

yup.

In Central League yesterday my Teammates wheel fell out about 200m from the finish so he ran the rest, only to be told he may be DQ’d. He was about 3 laps down on the winners at the time.

Hard work yesterday, racing in temperatures of 20 degrees