• This topic has 292 replies, 61 voices, and was last updated 6 years ago by paton.
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  • 2016-17 CX racing thread
  • IdleJon
    Full Member

    Where was the tricky descent, Jon?

    Right at the end of the lap, just after the steps. Sandy, with a drop on one side then the next and a bit twisty. Lots of dismounts there to run down – not surprising, I suppose, when a few inches to the side had you off the track and over the bars.

    The couple who tried to walk their loose dogs over there didn’t help.

    ferrals
    Free Member

    I don’t think he’s including that tricky descent this year?

    I ran down that the first lap rather than sit in the queue of people waiting to ride it, passed about 10 people… not that it helped as I punctured 30s later.

    Apparently its a differnet area and there won’t be as much sand :cry:. Given that its got parking right by the start finish, some tarmac and as Matt’s doing tide2tide the day before I wonder if it will start in the main area by the cafe? There’s a horrible sand wall he sent us up on one of the winter xc events that would be a “great” belgium style run-up

    Shedbrwed, I was close enough to vomming on Sunday without trying to force a gel down my throat mid race!

    mooman
    Free Member

    Very short course at Pembrey today. We were lapping riders as early as the 2nd lap.
    Bit frustrated by one lapped rider who just blatantly blocked my path as I tried to overtake … everytime I called Left or Right; he waited for me to start the manoeuvre – then did his best to push me off track … I lost 30 seconds on that lap before I could shoulder past him.
    Then on next lap got stuck behind a couple riders who washed out on descent towards start of lap … had to tell them to pick bikes up instead of just standing there looking at them!!

    Bit of a frustrating race today!

    Outside top 10 this week I think.

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    cloudnine
    Free Member

    I thought the race etiquette at pembrey was pretty good today.. Although wasnt overtaking like the fast riders.
    Was a bit confused as to where to line up for the start. The 2 sandy step climbs seemed to bottle neck nearly every lap. No idea on how I did but took it far to easy on the first lap. Was a fun day out and great weather..

    shedbrewed
    Free Member

    Had my sons naming ceremony yesterday afternoon up on the blorenge followed by many beers so was in no fit state to race today. Glad you had a reasonable race, Ant even if you need to sharpen those elbows 😉

    ferrals
    Free Member

    Etiquette was great in the senior race IMO, but lesser traffic than the vets so felt like most of the time wasn’t an issue.

    The course was short but I really enjoyed it, nice to have something different. Kind of like some of the races you see on you tube.

    Probably the hardest cross race I’ve done yet with those two run ups in close succession. Was struggling with cleats clogging with sand too.

    super chuffed though as wasn’t going to bother yesterday as felt so bad, woke up saw the sunshine and thought fvck it, and ended up finishing more or less surrounded by same people as last two weeks.

    Hope naming ceremony wa good shedbrewed!

    davidjey
    Free Member

    Bit frustrated by one lapped rider who just blatantly blocked my path as I tried to overtake … everytime I called Left or Right; he waited for me to start the manoeuvre – then did his best to push me off track … I lost 30 seconds on that lap before I could shoulder past him.

    Note their number and report them to the comms next time. The onus is on lapped riders to surrender the racing line. Them’s the rules.

    Really enjoyed yesterday – another minute or so longer and the course would have been perfect (and I might not have got lapped!). I spent the first 3 laps locked in some very close racing with 2 or 3 others before things settled down.

    Speaking of lapped riders, Matt Fratesi came past me with 2 laps to go, just before the tarmac section. I then caught him up again on the tarmac (I guess he was cruising by that point)! Seemed a bit rude to either draft him or unlap myself, so ended up pulling alongside and having a little chat!

    ferrals
    Free Member

    another minute or so longer and the course would have been perfect

    Agreed. I really really liked it, but think if we could have had a couple more open grass hairpins by the pits/finish area would have been absolutely perfect.

    aP
    Free Member

    Sumners Ponds was nice and warm yesterday. I think it all went off well.

    weeksy
    Full Member

    My lad did the Wessex CX yesterday, Under 10 catagory, he’s recently turned 8. The course was brilliant though, lots of undulation, little droppy bits etc… was great fun riding round with him in practice. The lad did really well getting 6/38 and was really happy.

    I don’t think i’m ever going to be in a position to race the adults cat thoguh myself.

    mooman
    Free Member

    I thought they should have made use of the field over from the start. Big field like that could have really spread the field out and eliminated most, if not all, of the bottle necks.

    Then again – if it was wet, maybe the grass would have got churned up too badly.

    trickydisco
    Free Member

    We had national champ Liam Kileen racing in our local league yesterday in Cheltenham!

    aP
    Free Member

    Surprised your Comm didn’t put him on the first row TBH.

    mick_r
    Full Member

    Lovely day but full of a cold and on marshall / coursebuild duty at Bolton. Vets and Ladies race had 173 starters so looked just a little bit frantic / crowded…..

    hoopyfrood
    Free Member

    Surprised your Comm didn’t put him on the first row TBH.

    It didn’t seem to hinder him too much! I was hoping he’d only lap me twice, but caught me a third time on the last lap.

    Garry_Lager
    Full Member

    weeksy – Member

    I don’t think i’m ever going to be in a position to race the adults cat thoguh myself. You could give it a go at least once if you’re there with your lad, you might be surprised how accessible it is – way more than short course mountain biking IMHO. It’s a hard shift but there’s always someone to race against, esp so given the big fields that are now common place so really give a range of ability. It’s also very absorbing – You’re constantly choosing lines and have a lot of ebb and flow with those around you.

    ferrals
    Free Member

    Agree with Gary_Lager, our league (Welsh) is super friendly and all ability levels, I get the impression others are the same. Plus if you enjoy it, cx is easy to improve at just by messing around, so long as you don’t mind risking the wrath of park groundsmen that is!

    Edit. Results out and I achieved my season goal position already. Made up… but with only three races gone, now I need a new goal – keeping up with David Jey 😆

    ferrals
    Free Member

    My last cx race for a while yesterday at carmarthen. Fast dry course that was great to race on, one mildy technical run-up and drop and then lots of cornering skills practise. Largely really pleased, finally my starts aren’t atrocious, plus I kept up with David for a lap or two! 😆 First race for me this season when its been full on wheel to wheel racing from start to finish. Had a good battle with two other riders till about 40 minutes when I blew, had a slow lap then recovered and had a good battle with another guy for the last three laps. Was pretty gutted as we were wheel to wheel for three laps and were set for a sprint finish till a lapping rider barrelled past causing me to stall, but hey ho, i can’t sprint anyway 😆

    A month of non-cycling weekends and chores await. A bit gutted to miss the abergavenny weekend, two races in a weekend sounds good. Back for Melin Mynach, hopefully by then I’ll have worked out how to keep the intensity for an hour… and it will have started raining.

    shedbrewed
    Free Member

    I enjoyed yesterday at Carmarthen too. Sorry I didn’t get a proper chat to you at the end Ferrals but the boy had done a poonami so dealing with that was more pressing! I still struggle from the starts, was the same time trialling; if I go off to hard it messes me up for the rest of the race. Problem is that first 10 minutes makes such a difference positioning wise. Oh well. I tried a couple of different techniques out yesterday at other parts of the course and found some things worked and others not.
    See you at Gorseinon. Hopefully I can avoid another concussion.

    ferrals
    Free Member

    Haha, no probs, that is more important!

    See you in November

    2tyred
    Full Member

    HUGE day yesterday to start the 2016 season in Scotland – Callendar Park in Falkirk hosted over 600 entrants across all categories. V40 was probably the biggest single category with something like 145 starters, mental.

    Glorious sunshine, fun fast flowy course and some brilliant racing made it a great day out. I was aiming for a top 10, was all going to plan til I threw the chain, took ages to sort, then it happened again twice over the next few laps. Ended with a mid-20s finish, frustrating but I felt great throughout and reckon I rode well. Mechanical misfortunes aside, good to have the season underway. There’s always another day!

    ferrals
    Free Member

    That is an insane field! Last year our combined seniors/women/juniors/all vet cats. was about that and it was crazy racing.

    Been hearing about the National Trophy in Derby too, sounds amazing, might have to try a national next year!

    trickydisco
    Free Member

    Watched SVEN – The Final Year at the weekend. Well worth a watch

    [video]http://vimeo.com/ondemand/sven/182956406[/video]

    doodlebug
    Free Member

    Not so much of a huge field of riders for the Vet’s National Trophy at Derby yesterday, only 146 lined up 😉
    Kris turned up from Belgium, ripped everybodys legs off and won ;-(

    davidjey
    Free Member

    Ian I enjoyed our tussle for the first couple of laps but I was relieved to get rid of you 😉 Indeed the whole race felt like a battle to get a gap on people and not have them chase me down again! Great racing, but I literally could not relax for a moment, there was always someone hounding me – my teammate Mike, who I thought had blown completely, came back super strong and nearly caught me on the bell lap.

    I’m all in until Abergavenny (but only racing the regional), but I’m taking a couple of weekends’ break after that with the aim of peaking for Welsh Champs (rather that burning out by then). Unfortunately this means skipping Melin Mynach, so I guess I won’t race you again til mid November….please don’t get any faster by then.

    crashtestmonkey
    Free Member

    Racing Central League for second season, and aiming for top 10s (in V40) based on end of last season. They used last year’s final standings to grid round 1 which was nice. Managed to justify it by getting 7th in Rd1 which was an “A” race for me as my favourite course (RAF Halton, loads of wooded singletrack 🙂 ). Had empty legs for Rd2 at MK so was happy with 11th, and despite being swamped off the start line at Rd3 at Hemel had a good race and got another 7th. Still using the summer tyres and skinsuit (ahem, yes I’ve gone that far) and no mechanicals so far. Not sure if we’ll do the 8 rounds needed to qualify (last year only managed 7 which was very frustrating) as going to do a few local Wessex rounds when the corresponding Central is a distance away.

    Averaging about 90 in V40, we race with juniors (less than 20?), Senior field similar.

    And fair play to one guy who races V40, then seniors an hour later, and finishes well inside top 10 in both (Gavin Rumbles if you know him).

    ferrals
    Free Member

    david jey – Member
    Ian I enjoyed our tussle for the first couple of laps but I was relieved to get rid of you

    Haha. I was particularly pleased when you stalled round that one corner, not that you let me stay in front long!

    I’m all in until Abergavenny (but only racing the regional), but I’m taking a couple of weekends’ break after that with the aim of peaking for Welsh Champs (rather that burning out by then)….please don’t get any faster by then.

    I”m hoping to peak for the champs as well, what with it being a home race and all. I’ve written out a training plan and everything 😳 although i’I’ve already failed by missing this evenings session and sitting in front of the tv with a pint instead 😆

    Will do my best to get faster but will probably just overtrain and get the flu!

    Garry_Lager
    Full Member

    V good course at Manchester yesterday – had been raining prior to but the sun came out and it ran really well.
    Unfortunately I managed to roll a tub after gurning up a steep bank, so finished the race well down on where I wanted to be. Still, some good racing.

    Never glue tubs after five pints….

    crashtestmonkey
    Free Member

    Ferrals, david jey, I may be joining you in Wales at some point, Munqe Chick has just sent me an email with this on it…

    ORDER RECEIPT

    ONLINE APPLICATION FOR EVENT ENTRY

    This is a receipt of payment and not a guarantee of acceptance into the event.
    ________________________________________
    Welsh Cyclo-Cross Championships 2016

    Veteran Male 40-49 04/12/2016 12:45
    You have applied for the following riders to participate in this race:

    shedbrewed
    Free Member

    With Ferrals tucked away in a hotel room I suppose I will do a Welsh League update. Saturday race this time as the course/location at Abergavenny was being used for round 2 of the Nationals on Sunday.
    Weather was dry and with a crisp wind.
    Course was technically interesting with a good few off-camber switchbacks and corners and some nice flowing wooded sections. Despite the dry weather the lines were quick to become greasy in places and the off-camber sections saw me and a few others I’m sure enjoy a slide or 7. I rolled my rear limus tub around the 40 minute mark and had to run to the pits and fit a spare wheel with baby limus. Not as much climbing grip but still good on the corners although I couldn’t make up that many places to get back to where I was.
    Oh and there were Belgians, bloody fast Belgians and UK National riders enjoying a pre-Race race.
    Superb course and one I hope we get next year as well.

    ferrals
    Free Member

    Tucked away in a hotel room but still with internet access 🙂 – plus now drunk!
    Unlucky with the tub mate- looks like you still managed a reasonable result given the influx though? Really gutted I missed this w/e, pictures look like a ‘proper’ cross course, something I feel to a certain extent I’ve missed this year so far. Just hope it rains before MM as that’s bone dry at the moment.

    Crashtestmonkey, great stuff, been helping design the champs course. It’s not finalised yet but it’s looking really good at the moment. We had a bit of a setback as an MTV event affected a lot of the park but actually think the required modifications have improved things. Hard though, both technical and physical: some nice tight turns and off-cambers with a fair elevation change too

    As an drunken pub conversation aside, I can’t help thinking there should be a national trophy at Pembrey, thought it this years course had had another 500m more open grass hair pin type stuff and some hurdles it would have been a perfect course

    Munqe-chick
    Free Member

    Oh Man I’m late to the CX party this year on this thread!!! Yes Ferrals I was coming back for an attack at the stripes Welsh jersey (if only FFion James and Ruby Miller can be away racing elsewhere!) so entered Crashtestmonkey too! He’ll have a laugh starting at the back and fighting his way through the filed. Do women have a separate start to men in Welsh league now?

    Central league have upgraded to timing chips with live results. IT is awesome within 10 minutes of finishing they have the podium and as soon as you cross that line you get your placing! I LOVE CROSS .. cross is the boss

    ferrals
    Free Member

    In league women start with v50s 2 minutes after v 40s, will double check if it’s same in the champs.

    We’re going to be using chips for the champs. In the league it’s 50-50 using them or old school number counting.

    warton
    Free Member

    MY first race of any description this year on Saturday.

    forgot how much I loved it. got a third place vets finish as well, so happy with that.

    once I’d remembered it’s ok to get sideways I had a great time 🙂

    Munqe-chick
    Free Member

    Warton where was that?

    We had a wide pan flat powerful grass crit! Although I had a cracking battle for 2/3rd (which I won) due to my technical prowess and tactical nous! 😉 that’s what I like to think anyway. Crashtestmonkey didn’t enjoy his race and found it soul destroying when he spent his race wheel sucking and the guy who’s wheel he was hanging on was shouting words of encouragement to hold on!

    No Welsh league this weekend Ferrels? Gorseinon next week that’s generally a good course isn’t it?

    ferrals
    Free Member

    Yeah think it was a w/e off for the Welsh league last w/e, I’ve not raced in a month… not really riden my bike in two weeks 😥 Been working away and long hours in the week, then getting ill and sleeping all w/e, still recovering.. so am dreading the pain of racing on Sunday 😆

    Yep Gorseinon this weekend (6th). It is crazy dry. There are maybe three damp patches the entire course. I think we have a tiny bit of rain forecast one evening but can’t see it being anything other than dry. Had switched to mud tyres in anticipation but going back to intermediates. Course is being run in reverse this year. Should be really good, a new extra little bit with a different descent, a drifty gravel corner or two and a bit of wooded stuff.

    ferrals
    Free Member

    Well yet again we had blue skies for the Welsh league. Hope everyone liked the new course, my input was the repeated hairpins up and down the bank in the main field and the little switchback section over the lump by the entrance, so be nice about those bits! Good to see idle-Jon racing today – even if he forgot how old he was 😉

    Not sure how I feel about my race, I wasn’t up for it at all, if it hadn’t been the home race I’d probably have not bothered. Then had an atrocious start which riled me up 😆 got sandwiched between two guys leaning on me from either side and was almost last going into the first corner. Expended a fair bit of energy getting back to midfield in the first lap and made a few more places up in the first bit of lap two, then had a steady race for the rest of it, couple of battles but more just steady plugging to the end. As far as I can tell was my worst result this year, but probably only by a few places so not as bad as I thought it would be at the start.

    New venue next week, and finally rain forecast! Looking forward to mud – so long as I don’t lose a rear mech!

    Hope everyone else had good races

    Garry_Lager
    Full Member

    Ventured into Wales today – nothing on in the NW so did the lead mines course above Wrexham in the N Wales league. Loved the course, really tight and technical and a good rhythm to it – credit to the organisers. You’d go deep but there always seemed to be a recovery bit to stop you from completely blowing.
    Felt like I had a good race but no idea on results. Didn’t get involved with the melee at the start and moved up pretty steadily, got lapped by a few of the leaders.

    2tyred
    Full Member

    Beautiful day in Scotland for round 3 of the SCX series and another bumper day with something like 650 racers across all categories. A change to the normal timetable saw the V50s race separated from the women’s race, giving everyone a bit more room but meant less practice time in between races. Feedback seemed good though, and will hopefully help the female field size grow further.

    I coach young racers and always emphasise the importance of staying ‘on it’ all the way to the line and not switching off at the death. What did I then go and do? About 150 starters in the V40s, but a decent start and first two laps saw me up to 4th with the front in sight. Held that til the bell, where I realised I must have slipped back a bit as 3rd had pretty much disappeared and I was suddenly in a battle for 4th with another 3 riders. Nip and tuck for the last lap with positions changing til coming back into the arena 6th on the wheel of 5th. A sprint across the gravel to the line and I knew I wasn’t going to take it so switched off like a moron with <5m to go and lost 6th right on the line. Aaaargh!

    Pleased enough with the ride and another top 10 but annoyed with myself. Smashing event though and nice conditions to race in.

    mooman
    Free Member

    Really enjoyed Gorseinon yesterday; could really keep momentum going.
    Not the best start; missed last 3 races, so gridded 3rd line back which meant I got swamped first bend, and lost sight of guys out front until about 4th lap. Starting getting closer on guys I usually race with – then rider went down in front of me, and me and bike doing cartwheels over top of him.
    Just outside top 10 I think/expect.

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