I missed the Darkstar beers too… The website definitely implied there’d be a ‘Darkstar beer tent’ which to me means I can go buy some of their tasty wares.

Still Black Sheep’s not the worst beer in the world.

Had to laugh at the Jim’ll fix it theme being belted out half way through the day (although with so many kids around I’m not so sure it should have been!)

Stavro – I wasn’t at the Rapha. It also looks good though. The original site for the Citycross was at/through an old Mill but land owners permission got pulled at a late stage.

Surprised the Rapha race didn’t have a Moet shortcut. Or an option where you could go up your own arse.

From what I saw yesterday really opened my eyes to ‘cross. I thought it was a load of oddballs mincing around a field and carrying their bikes. And yes, there were some oddballs and there was some definite mincing and there was carrying being done by everyone but the pace of the racing and the containment within a small area made it pretty good for spectators. Its not going to make me rush out and buy a cross bike but I’ll definitely maybe give it a go if they run it in future on a rigid MTB.

And seeing grins on faces and overhearing people there, I think it was pretty well thought off – it was certainly MUCH better attended by both racers and spectators than I thought it was going to be. The only negative I overheard on the day was some jumped up little sh*t who had won a helmet and heavens above, it was a BMX type piss pot which was “crap”.

Meow DBW. Don’t give a hoot about Rapha products or personalities, I was just saying they put on a cracking event that looked like everyone there enjoyed and if you are going to promote any event with the word city in it, then there should be some urban element to say the least.

RE the City part of the city cross-
the original venue was in an old mill building, but at last min the owner changed his mind about the use of his land, I guess it was better to move venue, rather than cancel the whole event.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=halifax&hl=en&ll=53.729217,-1.868362&spn=0.010232,0.013003&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=5.230481,6.657715&t=m&hnear=Halifax,+West+Yorkshire,+United+Kingdom&z=15

Mile from the town centre, old cobbled descents and surrounded by residential areas. And as its been mentioned, the original location which was meant to be in and around an old mill fell through at the last minute. Not a bad venue I didn’t think for a last minute venue change.

As far as I’m aware its been a patch of wasteland for years – ideal for building an urban bike loop like the new one in Sheffield or something.

I really liked it. Hurt like hell, it was SO intense. Such a short course that you’re on the scramble bit almost before you’ve recovered from last time up it!

They did a great job with the course at very short notice. Nicely compact, easy to get around. Little bit crowded round the start/registration area but some of that was thanks to the morons who decided to ignore the “please don’t park on Brackenbed Lane” who jammed it solid. 🙁

Other than that, really good atmosphere, very laid back.
My legs hurt.

DBW – good idea that, loads of room for a pump track/skate park etc in there. Wonder if Calderdale council would be interested, they’re pretty good with cycling/active stuff generally. Would only be a good thing for the area in general too I reckon.

Well I really enjoy it once I got racing.
Our moto was delayed by the crash but that couldn’t really be helped.

Was a tough little course with a bit of everything.
Needed hurdles and a ride through cafe/beer tent though.

Atmosphere was good and relaxed too, whilst there were some big hitters there, they weren’t overly serious.

Parking was an issue, made much better when they stopped the double parking idiots and made it one way.Local plod to the rescue on that one.

That pizza was awesome!!

I actually preferred it to the Rapha supercross. Much more fun atmosphere, reminded me of the Singletrack weekender a little bit.

Now the important bit……where are all the piccys of us looking awesome?

I minced round near the back of the vets 2nd moto and spent the rest of the time cheering on my brother and various other acquaintances. I’d do another one. Hopefully a bit fitter next time.

stavromuller Broughton is definately not “city” Shoggs being waste land close to the city makes it more urban/city I was at Rapha and thought it a little lacking in atmosphere apart from the novice race around the tequila shortcut. As for citycross every race had the crowd cheering and the compactness of the area made it a really good vibe.

I had a great time yesterday at the city cross

The atmosphere was great and the whole event had a good feel to it.

Falling off and breaking a finger did take the edge off it for me, but I am looking forward to next year already

Not many pics shared yet!

Not many pics shared yet!

Joolze has just tweeted that her pics should be up in an hour or so…

They are done and all posted ;0)
Joolze’s Website

Paul Oldham of Hope (the middle rider) on his way to another win

Here’s me suffering a bit:

This is me suffering a lot:

Here’s me suffering a bit:

you should have taken the beer we offered earlier, it made it all seem better apparently 🙂

I’d have been all over that beer if I’d been riding. I was getting a thirst on just watching it…

I had one beer shot on each of my last laps – 7.2%[/u] Belgian IPA does not go down so easy when you’re nearly chucking your guts up! 😉

I dragged the family to the Mill, and then dragged them to the new venue. I wasn’t popular!

Kids enjoyed the event once there though. Pizza and beer being right opposite the jump and bastard little climb was genius.

Would also have like to have been sipping Darkstar not Black Sheep… maybe next time?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?client=mv-google&hl=en&gl=GB&v=tVY-eR8EXLI&feature=youtu.be&nomobile=1 this is what you missed

Few of mine…
Start of the novice moto #1:

woody2000 suffering at the hands of a climb with someone heckling him on it 😉

Cabbage throwing:

Fast guys on the boggy bit. This was about as boggy as it got…

City Cross. Isn’t it… Thats Pellon Lane up there. B&Q is at the bottom of the area where the race was held and a retail park with Halfords etc is just up there.

Give him a cowbell and tell him to shout…

Thanks for the kind words all of you! It was super hard work to pull this off in such a short space of time, let alone having the original “city” venue pull out at the 11th hour, so glad you all had such a good time.

We were aware that £20 to 20 mins racing could seem steep but it certainly wasn’t a money making exercise. It costs quite a lot to clear out these derelict pieces of land, diggers, rubbish clearance etc. Most people had a chance to race twice and the aim was to make the course hard so that 20 mins felt like an hour 🙂 The goody bag had over £10 worth of goods in it and we would have loved to put a free tee in. Trouble is we hate promo tees and our tees work out quite expensive for giveaways, especially when we run out of cash! I realise that this comes across as quite defensive but we live and breath bike riding and racing so don’t view events as money making exercises. We just want to put on events that make people love riding their bikes and open their eyes to new possibilities.

Dark Star kindly gave their Belgian IPA for the Beer shortcut. The were going to have it on tap but there was another last minute logistic issue getting the beers up from Sussex which was a real shame. We relocated the beer to the top of the tarmac climb and offered it out to all finalists too. Not many takers in those races but we ended up pretty much handing it out to anyone who came to the Morvelo stand 🙂

The plan for the next one is to take it back to it’s more urban environment and take all the lessons we learnt from this to improve the next. It was a great unknown running this new format so we had no idea what the reception of it would be. Seems like we’re onto something though so hope to make them bigger and better. Looking at doing one in Bristol next if we can find the right venue. Fingers crossed!

Thanks so much to all of you that turned up and enjoyed yourselves. Really made the hard graft worth it!

CityCross was a great day out!

I was there from 8am until the end and think £20 for a full days entertainment and racing was an absolute bargain!

Everyone got to race their moto plus the option of a last chance saloon race to get into the final – 50mins racing minimum.

Top job Morvelo, Emma, Mark and everyone else involves and thanks for your hard work!

See you in Brizzle!

Apparently it’s just been on ITV calendar, whatever that is. Here’s a pic of me. I seem to be enjoying myself…. http://www.flickr.com/photos/hanglebads/8524777441/in/set-72157632904822999

It was on Calendar (Yorkshire TV local news) and you were in the first shot Mr. Sparkle and may be repeated after ITV 10 o’clock news.

And here it is (hopefully). Me at 8 secs in
http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/update/2013-03-07/hundreds-take-part-in-re-cycling-race-on-former-tip/?action_object_map=%7B%2210151463374735914%22%3A390547631042571%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D&action_type_map=%7B%2210151463374735914%22%3A%22og.recommends%22%7D&fb_action_ids=10151463374735914&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=other_multiline

Who were the two ringers in novice?

Excuse the delay, always takes me ages to sift through… Here’s just a few of the better ones, the rest’ll be on Facebook in a day or three but I’ll not clog up stw with all of them.

If you see yourself and would like a full res version with no watermark give me a shout.

Some great pictures there chris!

Could you send me a copy of the guy in the blue shirt in the air to me ?

Cheers
Alastair

Cheers Alastair: No probs – what’s your addy?

alastairhaigh at gmail dot com

(If you got any of the bloke on the green hope decal-ed orange 5 (me) could you send them too?)

Many thanks
Alastair

More on FB now…

Non Racing

Vets Moto 2

Seniors Moto 2

Novice Moto 2

Novice Final_Last Chance Qualifier

Seniors Final

Women Youth Juniors

Vets Final

Holy Thread Resurrection Batman!

More photos HERE