Western League Summer cyclocross starts this week – round 1 is in Pitville Park, Cheltenham.

It’s going to be dry, dusty, and fast – so my ambition not to be lapped is going to be seriously tested.

Anyone else racing?

Interesting – the Yorkshire series is already two races old…

I’ll be at Pittville. My ambition is only to be lapped once and not to get cramp as I always to at Pittville. The possible addition of second set of boards/jumps/hurdles will almost certainly mean the second one isn’t going to happen…

@daern – different definition of Summer up North 🙂

@hoopyfrood – I may reset the ambitions then…  First CX race in a while, so if the course is short and has obstacles then I may take a while to get back in the flow.

I’ll be in Performance Cycles kit (black/red) on the Specialized TriCross

@richardk – be ambitous! My only being lapped once is based on pretty much always being lapped twice in Western league. It is a pretty short course (and a little shorter than past years if you’ve ridden if before) and there will be at least one set of barriers, which will be just before a steep bank, so there’ll be no bunny hopping them either.

I’ll be in Cheltenham kit on a white Trek Crockett.

Evening,

Is it much shorter than last year? Great course. I like Pitville park. see you there.

Matt

Hoping the Kinesis summer series will run again this July/August.

Battle in the Bowl this weekend though in Winchester.

I like the sound of the Battle in the Bowl. Shame it always clashes with xc races for me.

Is it much shorter than last year? Great course. I like Pitville park. see you there.

We’re not using the railway path (the straight that’s furthest from the road, separated from the rest of the course by a hedge) this year. There will be a few more short loops on the rest of the course  – so it’ll be shorter in distance, but hopefully the lap time won’t be much shorter.

Series starting in Newbury this Thursday I believe.

Edit. Yep this thursday

https://www.banjocycles.com/summer-cx

Might do next week

There was a tricky little entry/exit on that straight last year. We went flying on lap one. Good little venue. Great racing after work.

Well that was hard… quite a novelty racing cross in dry dusty conditions, and always amazing how long a course you can put together in such a small area.

http://www.racetecresults.com/Results.aspx?CId=27&RId=20248&EId=2

@matt lewis – nice result!

Managed 13th in my category, and only got lapped once.  Aimed to go off easier than i normally would do, and pick it up through the race – the stats show i didn’t manage this though!  3 fast laps, the slide out on a corner in lap 4 which slowed me.  Speed and heart rate dipped in laps 5,6, & 7 as i sat in behind someone and tried to achieve a steady pace – lapping at roughly 6 minutes.  Halfway through lap 8 as you pass near the start/finish line the bell went for the leaders – I briefly though about sitting up and letting myself get lapped – nah, **** it, let’s fight, and picked up again in laps 8 & 9 to dip below the 6 minute mark per lap and finish strong.

hrTSS of 129 for 56 minutes of racing, a new threshold heart rate (as advertised by Training Peaks), and a new max heart rate for cycling!

Overall really happy with the race, but probably should have fought harder through lap 9 as the person I’d passed earlier came past me just after the boards.

@matt lewis – nice result!

Next week’s race at Chavenage is cancelled

Well done @richardk and @matt lewis – your results are far more impressive than mine.

I was bizzarely (as someone who’s always not quite last) gridded on the front row due to the very small senior field and not many league regulars. I then managed to make it all the way to last senior within a lap or so! I then had a fairly long battle over not-last place, which I eventually came out on top of as the other guy took a tumble somewhere. This was lucky as it came around the same time I was starting to cramp when going over the boards as always happens to me at Pittville. Pleased with only being lapped once, but I can’t have been far off being caught for the second time.

Cheers, I had a flat tubular and how it never rolled off going around some of those rock ‘ard corners I’ll never know. Great to be racing again but that was flat out!

Matt

Are you the Matt Lewis who used to race bikes and used to teach history at a north london secondary?

Yes, are you an ex-pupil? Let me guess. Joe Sheffer?

Matt

Yes! Good to see you are racing. I’m getting fat, useless and ridden with injuries.

Nice to hear from you Joe. I doubt it, how old are you by now? Get back on the bike and get yourself to a Beastway. You still in London? I’ve been racing a fair bit since being back in Wales. I’ll PM you since it would be good to hear what you’re up to.

All the best,

Matt

Drop me an email. Be good to hear from you: mail@joesheffer.com

Looks like i can pull a good race face – oh FFS, can’t post photos…

Courtesy of https://www.facebook.com/IsobelHaywardSportPhotography/

Yorkshire League attendee here, i would say competitor but i can’t say that what i do is actually competing. Aiming for a top half finish at least once though if i manage to stay fit & drop a bit of weight.

Last nights Newbury Summer Cross was a bit damp…almost bloody drowned. It was too wet to get out of the car and put mud tyres on the bike so I ice skated round with no grip. Came first ( well twenty first).

First race since abandoning Mayhem solo cat after 12 hours in 2006!