Well done Munque-chick – looked like you were riding well.

Thanks to tang, qwerty and everyone involved with the organisation.

Well done to Munque Chick for the result, top work on a very sticky course.
Despite the course being mostly all the things I don’t enjoy; running, sticky mud, slippy grass, wind (maybe cross isn’t the right sport for me? 😉 ) I really enjoyed the gravel and woods section. Nice to have some other pontypool company there and not to pull the rear derailleur off. Stopped a couple of times to declog derailleur and BB/forks which I’ve never had to do on the Canyon before. It was that sticky.
Great fun and many thanks for the organisation, and beers after.
Mmm recovery cider…

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A fantastic day, some heroic efforts, prime Cotswold venue, really nice that everyone hung around after to eat pizza & frittes, have a beer, coffee & cake and then into the mansion hall for live screening of the worlds.

Where were all the SSCXers?

See you all next year.

😀

Hopefully someone will be along shortly with some action shots!

Where were all the SSCXers?

Was there a class/prize for it? If so didn’t know, but it’s almost a 4 hour drive for me.

Was there a class/prize for it?

No, but the gloop suited it!

Very good event mega tacty mud saw a fair few broken rear mech hangers.
Nice inside the house watching last 10mins of Worlds.We were cleaning mates bike for every 2 laps.Nice fake rocks around side of house look very real.

Awesome last CX race of season! Hard, muddy ride which required lap bike changes. Oddly everyone gets seeded and starts together but I barrelled into row 3 of Vets 4 + 50, women and Junior. Had an appalling start and got stuck in traffic with competitive men so had to seriously battle to get through. 2 girls escaped and got 30+ seconds on, I kept my head on and ploughed on trying to remember all my skills (ha ha). Slowly reeled them back in on lap 3 and managed to get past and get a gap. Had awesome team of pit crew (Cardiff JIF) who realised my pit bike was a single speed on big ring and informed me they had a new pit bike with saddle height set for me .. Off I went on Jack’s bike .. jack is 11 years old!! It worked a dream except for the crazy slammed low handlebars! Did the trick though and I pulled away for the win! Well chuffed with that! Hard battling with lots of blokes, I’m used to Women starting 1 min after Vets on our own start!

Had the odd altercation with rude ungrateful men but most were fab when I rode aggressively past then messed up the next corner 😉

Brilliant day out, particularly topped off with pizza and watching the World CHamps! My only disappointment (not a gripe against organisers) is my fab garish winners jersey is a medium and I need an XS 🙁 LOVE IT and wanted to wear it.

Now to chill after a fun awesome season. I will be back for Love Crossed next year! THanks Tang, Qwerty and all the others for all the effort and hard work that went into it!

Now to chill after a fun awesome season. I will be back for Love Crossed next year! THanks Tang, Qwerty and all the others for all the effort and hard work that went into it!

Err, i should point out that this is Tangs baby, he’s pulled it all together into what you had today, put in all the graft of logistics & headaches in the weeks & months prior, and keeps his head throughout, well done! I just help out.

Really enjoyed today, had an awful race, have a feeling I may have come dead last of the people that actually finished but it was still a good day and venue. Racing, pizza and cx on the screen after. Brilliant! Thanks to Tang and all involved. Was a good course, I thought, on the two laps I did pre the vets/women’s race it was all 100% rideable, pretty fast and not to claggy but that had changed by the seniors race.

As to the race, my legs weren’t in it with too much more endurance type training in them and a dodgy knee, and my heart wasn’t in it when I lost sight of shedbrewed and I realised a guy I normally beat in the Welsh league had two bikes and was switching every lap so I couldn’t keep up. Was having to stop and try and de-clog using sticks every half lap, still ripped my rear mech in half 5 yards from the finish line. My wife did comment it’s basically impossible to be competitive with just one bike, but it now transpires that wasn’t permission for a pit bike 🙁

Got to say though the western league spectators and hecklers need geeing up a bit, my wife was watching and couldn’t believe how quiet and polite it was!

Any idea when and where the results come out so I can see how badly I did?!

HA ha Ferrals that was DEFIANTELY a course for 2 bikes, I couldn’t have won without bike changes, the girl I reeled in who finisehd 3rd was NOT changing bikes! I had to pit on the last lap.. as I couldn’t even pedal up the final hill so I can’t imagine you’re pain after an hour!!!

I’m currently surfing Castelli Cafe trying to decide what to spend my £100 voucher on!! MEGA PRIZE thanks guys.

That clay mud is sapping. See my post edit re. Pit bikes – working on it for next season!!

Well done on the result!

Results

What it’s the way forward!!!! I had a crappy old Dolan which was my main bike at start of season, I had the opportunity to buy a pimpy Carbon Focus .. it was money I was going to use to pay of the mortgage, asked OH (Crashtestmonkey) who told me not to waste it on the mortgage buy the bike 🙂

aren’t I glad I did now!!!! Now the dolan has broken this season and despite it allegedly being 8 speed it is now a single speed! Hence borrowing an 11 year old’s bike so better pit bike for me next year LOL 😉

They are very polite around there don’t forget the future king of England only lives around the corner have to watch your Ps and Qs!!! 🙂
Most people had glogging problems yet there was a guy in the main race with cantis and never changed the bike once seemed to be clearer than most even the disc brake bikes strange.

I was using PDX’s which I’d previous found to shed mud well, but they were failing yesterday. Close up, notice the lovely smooth surface shaped by the fork stays:

Few other pictures from the seniors race:

Got a good shot of one of my club mates there. Nice one. As a single bike racer I stopped a couple of times to clear out the rear derailleur and bb/forks despite the canyon usually having good clearance. A good rain shower would’ve helped but hey ho.

Got a couple of you too which I’d thought I’d stuck up, Including the moment you lapped me :oops:, I’ll chuck them up later this eve.

Can’t work out why my bike got so clogged, but I literally couldn’t get the wheels turning.

A bunch of pics here too:
Stroud Life Gallery

Despite the course being mostly all the things I don’t enjoy; running, sticky mud, slippy grass, wind (maybe cross isn’t the right sport for me? ) I really enjoyed the gravel and woods section.

Ha ha, that’s a far more positive take on it than I had. A minute of enjoyable gravel and woody singletrack. Then 9 minutes of flat, muddy field. I’ve got cycling friends who just don’t understand CX – this is why. 😆

Couple more photos:

I can spot that extra 5kg! Cheers Ferrals, mind if I yoink them?

Haha, didn’t slow you down though! Yep feel free, think they are full size

Yep feel free, think they are full size

Stop going on about the belly! 😀

Good to see bikes with disc brakes were clogging up too! I was contemplating buying a disc braked cross bike based solely on my experiences at Lovecrossed. My wheels were jammed solid! It’s never been that bad before. I was wishing I’d had my mountain bike with the Lefty as a second bike. Slick event though and good to meet some fellow Welsh leaguers.

All the best.

Matt

Nah disks were just as bad, am thinking of getting tubs for next season as I think they shed mud better due to running crazy low pressures.

Anyone know where any of the ‘real’ photographers images are? seemed to be a lot of good cameras (and film?) knocking about, but only seen the stroud life ones.

good welsh representation on the stround life coverage posted by lovecrossed on instagram!

FWIW I stopped twice to de-clog and the Canyon has huge clearances. I only had to declog the BB and forks once. I did jockey wheels both times. My buddy JK stopped 5 times I think he said on his canti Limba.

I was de-clogging forks ‘on the fly’ from the start, by the half way mark i was stopping to de-clog as much of the bike as i could twice a lap. Speaking to a friend, bizarre as it seems, Ridley bikes apparently had very poorly clearing BB areas until last years models. Will have to practise my de-clogging by next season!

Or just get a second bike Ferrals you know it makes sense! Bike to work??

My Cannondale has got a ‘shelf’ sitting in front of the BB which causes the clog. By the end I was stopping twice per lap, but mainly because the jockey wheels were so bound up with crud.

Munqe-chick – Member

Or just get a second bike Ferrals you know it makes sense! Bike to work??

My current cx bike and a significant part of my mtb is still waiting to be paid off on the credit card – need to get that sorted first!

official photos up here though you have to enter email address to see them

Was just going to link! We went down with Flu straight after clean up! Needless to say we had a great time hosting everyone. We will be back better next year! More plans in store and we will work on the course some more.
On an aside, I will be doing a invitational to check out the XC course on the other side of the estate in the hidden valley. I have excellent 10-15k loop that we plan to race on at some point. I’ll post up in March sometime.