That will be the good thing about the non-league race at Llandysul on the 9th, everyone’s going off at once – while I think separate races are better, in some ways i preferred  it when we all used to go off en masse – more carnage rather than actual racing 😂

Really struggling to get motivated for round 4 of the Scottish series. It’s Fife College which was a really enjoyable, compact course last year, although with a horrible muddy run at the top which was pretty much a walk for me (or even an opportunity to stop and declag the bike).

This year, if I’ve learnt anything from the last two rounds, my fitness is well down on last year, and my attempts to squeeze in some extra turbo time between the last round and this weekend have just left me with a couple of niggling over-use injuries. Not really the form I want to be in before what promises to be an extra claggy muddy affair this time round (extra running, yay!…).

Far more tempted to take an easy spin up to a local RSPB reserve to see the early morning goose migration, then coffee and cake, then spin back.

…but then I go into the garage and see the bike hanging there all race prepped and looking fast and ready, seems a shame not to at least get it dirty. Is it possible to ‘take it easy’ in a cross race (especially one which is also the Scottish Champs?)…

…but then I go into the garage and see the bike hanging there all race prepped and looking fast and ready, seems a shame not to at least get it dirty. Is it possible to ‘take it easy’ in a cross race (especially one which is also the Scottish Champs?)…

I’d say yes to a degree – steady start, ride into it and see how it goes, you may feel great, you might not and it can just be a training session, work on race technique etc. CX racing is so absorbing, you nearly always take something away from an event.

I’ll be pretty much doing this on Sun at the Northern champs at Bradford – different league, not raced or ridden much for 3 weeks, so don’t feel that sharp. Good chance to race Peel park and get some race legs back under me for the NW series. Plus my daughter races U8s so there’s more going on in the day.

I guess it helps if it’s part of some bigger picture, though, like you’ve got your eye on the next events – CX is a big commitment on a weekend (as we all know) so just swanning round the course is expensive in terms of time, travel, bike cleaning, missed opportunity to do something else etc etc.

It’s really normal to feel like this mid season so don’t beat yourself up about it. There’s a great saying that there is no such thing as ‘should’ in amateur racing.

i felt the same last weekend, and also had a bit of a cold for an excuse so instead of racing I spent the whole day heckling. Had many laughs with other spectators and it was really informative and inspirational to watch my peers race (and nice to give them a cheer). Came home super motivated.

@IdleJon  But at least we’ll be on the course at the same time 👍

@ferrals what’s the Llandysul race? I’ve got a birthday party and club beers the 8th so might not be in best form 🤢

i felt the same last weekend, and also had a bit of a cold for an excuse so instead of racing I spent the whole day heckling.

Yeah, thanks for that! Presume you were at the top of the “wall”?

It’s a bloody long season, isn’t it? We’re 8 rounds in down here, with the Regionals this weekend at Cyclopark, on the same course that the Nationals will be run on, so looking forward to that.

Hi John_l I’m doing the Nationals with no chance to check out the course before hand. Could you report back here what it was like?

Of course. Cyclopark’s usually got a bit of everything and I suspect that it’s going to be muddy this weekend. There’s a flyover too!

I’ll be pretty much doing this on Sun at the Northern champs at Bradford – different league, not raced or ridden much for 3 weeks, so don’t feel that sharp. Good chance to race Peel park and get some race legs back under me for the NW series. Plus my daughter races U8s so there’s more going on in the day.

We’ll see you there then, I’m not racing but my eldest is in the U8, see what these Yorkies are like 😉

@shedbrewed, it’s on BC as spencer sport Cyclocross. According to Facebook, The idea is just a low key test event to see if it’s a good venue for future races. No chip timing, entry on the day etc.

@13thfloormonk unless you are pre-entered I’d be tempted to not bother and do something else. Racing cx -90% race pace can be fun but taking it easy isn’t really viable, and it pretty demoralising. Better do something else no fuel the fire for your next event.

Good luck everyone in all the regional champs. My fitness is way way down and lack of races this year means I’ll be gridded at the back but I’m pretty excited

Looks like we are finally going to have a muddy race, wonder if it’s coincidence I seem to have found a little bit of motivation 😂

Bottled SCX Rd 4 and went for a road bike spin instead, been too stressed the last few weeks as well as overdoing it on the turbo, just needed to decompress.

Funnily enough actually felt really good on the climbs so all that turbo has probably paid off, and figured out what was making my knee sore to boot, so a double bonus!

Took a diversion onto a lochside nature trail for 10km or so, ended up getting it sideways around a few muddy/gravelly corners, then spent the ride home in the dark bunnyhopping up and down kerbs to get out of the way of traffic (dark + peeing rain, felt very underlit for the conditions). So all in all some pretty good practice for the next CX rounds in January 😀

Sounds like a good ride 13thfloor – sharpen the saw. Looks like a decent number of events in the New Year in Scotland.

Bradford was a bit of a beast today – easy one of the most challenging courses I’ve done. You know how most times you get on top of a course early on and can then figure out how best to exploit it in the race? Felt like Peel park was on top of me every lap, battling the course as much as the other riders. Thks to the organisers for a class event -. Finished way down but was some righteous racing.

Had my first tubeless failure – heavy mud so ran them soft, swapped onto them lap3 and first off-camber climb the rear burped itself nearly flat. Felt a bit despondent at the idea of running round the course, but surprisingly I rode it like that for two laps and it didn’t even feel that bad (guess that tells you what the conditions were like) – was lapping around 8 mins and dropped about 25 seconds each time.

Sounds like you made the right choice @13thfloormonk

sounds good @Garry_Lager

welsh champs were at Abergavenny on a cracking course, lots of slippery off-cambers and tyre clagging mud but little in the way of sapping mud. My season to forget continues – before the start inrealised there was a big gash in my sidewall that had sealed but looked ropey, then within a quarter of a lap in the first lap argie-Bargie someone kicked my left shoe breaking off the boa dial so the plastic lacing was loose and my shoe was only held on by the Velcro toe strap. Having said that, it was only the last 1.5 laps that it became ridiculously loose and despite the lack of control or ability to generate power, I had some of the most fun I’ve had racing in yonks – first proper cross conditions I’ve raced in all season and a course that made you think about lines and when to run. Awful result but the shoe malfunction gives me a useful excuse 😂 and physically and mentally I felt good. Plus I had the ego boost of hitting one rutted corner right and hearing some kid say ‘that’s the way to do it’ 😂 😂

Well done Garry. We didn’t bother entering the Northern champs – and after listening to the battering rain all night quite glad we made that choice 🙂

I had a weekend that gave some good perspective on racing.

My club hosted round 8 of the NECCL. Gypsies Green, an old velodrome, an event I helped set up many years ago. I won, but events on the last lap meant nobody noticed. In fact most people abandonned.

As I crossed the line a friend about half a lap down collapsed. Stopped breathing, no pulse.  Our marshals started CPR. This is mid track, mid race, muddy grass in pissing rain. There was an AED in the building we used for signon. Some one bought it over. We ripped off his skinsuit, stuck the pads on him and it shocked several times between continuing CPR. Eventually (eternity/under 10 minutes) an ambulance arrived and they set to work.

It wasn’t until later that evening that most of us found out he was conscious and going in for surgery. Sunday evening we got a photo of him sitting in a hospital bed giving the thumbs up.

This guy is a V40 rider, fit, he’s consistently a top ten. Apparently it was a case of when not if so it was extremely lucky that he was actually somewhere with equipment and people primed to help. Stay safe, look out for your fellow racers and remember why you are racing and have fun. If you’ve never done one, go on a first aid course. Even a basic thing could make all the difference to someone.

Oh wow, that’s horrific. Really good to hear he’s ok and as you say, was in a place where the right first aid could be applied.

SE Regionals at Cyclopark were really good. It’s a great venue, with good facilities and the course was a cracker with plenty of off-camber traverses and descents that could mostly be ridden but were often quicker to run in places. Even had a mini sand-pit and a flyover and despite all of the rain in the preceding days, it held off during yesterday and I got away with intermediates, which I kept letting a bit more air out of during practice and ended up running around 15psi (according to my digital SKS gauge) – made the transition onto the tarmac straight quite bouncy!

Finished a good 20 places higher than my gridding, so reasonably happy and even considering coming back for the Nationals in Jan.

If @ferrals has had a season to forget then my first lap at the Welsh Champs was one to forget too. In fact I can’t remember much of it apart from some crashes and looking around 2/3 through the first lap and realising I’d gone from mid-grid to penultimate rider. Had my mum not come over to support I’d have ridden off the course at the end of the lap and DNF’d.
As the race went on I got my head and pace in and managed to ride and run back through the riders and in the end finished 18th. Highest placed rider from the shop team I’ve ridden for this year and enough to get us silver in the team medals. A nice way to finish my last senior season.
I definitely need to work on my running for next year and try and get a bit more weight off.
I’ll miss racing with some of the riders I’ve been dicing with over the last few years but might still drop in after the vet races to get my arse kicked.

@jonba glad to hear action was taken and the rider is doing ok. I did the week long first aid at work and defib course this year. Not had to use it at work but had to put it to use on a club run when a chap broke his collarbone and at home when my elderly neighbour had a heart attack and fall.
I’d recommend it to anyone.

1st round of the Super Quaich series yesterday on a really good, but claggy, course. Plenty of up, more down than expected, off-camber and singletrack to keep things interesting. Nearly missed the start though as I didn’t realise where everyone was forming up 🙂 Always good to have to line up near the back for that extra challenge (you only get gridded up here if you’re top 10 or so)!

2 things that have come out of the race….
– Crank Bros pedals aren’t the revelation i thought theyd be for cross. Grass seems to get wrapped around them more than SPDs and they will actually really pack up with mud on a day like yesterday. Obviously one of them already has play in a bearing, but then you’d expect that for CB.
– I’m definitely wearing a hole in my chainstay. Anyone else got this problem? It’s mud sticking to the chainring thats causing the problem, getting an increasingly large patch of shiny metal there now

NW series returns this weekend after a month’s hiatus – heading out to bandit country, Towneley Park in Burnley. The weather forecast is a belter, freezing sleet all morning, so should produce some racing. I’ve been on the ale all week with various Christmas functions, so looking forward to blowing off some cobwebs.

With respect to jonba’s post upthread about the racer who collapsed – I had a stress echo test on an exercise bike in a hospital yesterday in connection with some minor chest pain I’ve had. I appear to be in the clear as far as the heart goes [it doesn’t rule absolutely everything out, but it establishes the heart is properly oxygenated via ultrasound imaging, rules out angina-like conditions], so it’s likely something else in my case. But I just wanted to say the process was very efficient and salute the NHS for their service. Don’t hesitate to get checked out if you have chest pains – I felt like a bit of an imposter going through this when I’m fit and healthy, like you’re taking their time up when they have properly ill people to look after. But the preventative benefits are enormous if a heart condition can be identified early.

@jonba – sounds pretty horrific but glad to hear the rider recovered.

@shedbrewed, that first lap in the champs was properly chaotic, riders trampling all over each other.

Had a fantastic race last weekend at a trial event for a potential welsh league venue over at llandysul.Great venue, but a very small field, guess there was a dozen to 15 in the combined senior/vet category. Finally had a race in the kind of mud I like best, really fluid and slippery on the corners and sapping on the straights. With so much rain it was causing a bit of clogging in the mech but not sticking to tyres so everyone was fine on one bike. A really well though out course, with a run up and steep descent, lots of slightly offcamber turns, ups and down, some flat saturated sapping stuff, a deep and steep ditch crossing and enough gravel fireroad to recover.

Good start, was second for a bit. Towards the end of the first lap i went wide to cut in around a corner and someone behind me decided to go for a tighter line but instead just rode straight into my side and knocked me flying sideways, whacked my head pretty bad but as I’ve not raced much I couldnt face pulling, and it riled me enough that we had a good battle for a few laps alternating lead and gaps on differnet parts of the course before he got away and given a throbbing side of my head I decided to cruise the last lap and a half as we had a bit of a gap.
Shame it wasnt better attended as the organisers had gone to the trouble of making tropies for the differnet categories. On the plus side it meant I got 2nd senior and a trophy which in the normal scheme of things would never happen!

Last welsh league of the season this sunday, like @Garry_Lager I’m well into the christmas overindulgence already so the idea of a hard race fills me with dread!

Good to hear you’re OK Garry – was wondering what the outcome of the chest pains was. See you on the startline – what bike / kit am I looking for? I’m on the weird orange thing unless I dust off the radiator bike (maybe save that for the week after).

Good to hear you’re OK Garry – was wondering what the outcome of the chest pains was. See you on the startline – what bike / kit am I looking for? I’m on the weird orange thing unless I dust off the radiator bike (maybe save that for the week after).

Thks Mick, I’ll say Hello tomorrow – Stockport Clarion kit here, Belgian colours. Do you ride a handmade bike as your main cross bike then? I remember the rad bike from last year – I am on a more generic CAADX.

Sounds like you had a good result Ferrals, can’t argue with taking home a trophy.

haha cheers, the truth of the matter is I was lapped by the senior leader and I lapped senior third place. Good race against some of the vets and junior though. Didnt get as far as reading all your previous post yesterday, but good to hear the docs say you are ok

Hi, thinking about entering some CX races, based in Surrey (Guildford) there doesn’t seem to be anything very local. Have looked at the Wessex League and London CX league.

Are there any other race series that might be a bit nearer that I should look at?

cheers.

Not now, season’s almost done. Wessex League is probably the closest to you and maybe the odd Central League venue.

Not now, season’s almost done.

Really? Still months left in our season

3 more rounds between now and the end of Jan here. Mind you, it started on Sept 2nd!

I know the Stockport kit Gary – I usually have a battle then post race chat with Mr Mc Phillips.

Handmade frame sounds a bit posh – distinctly more homemade…. Pace carbon forks, twin top tubes and Unimog orange so hard to miss (definitely not UCI approved). Alison also races on a more normal looking black homebuild. So far nothing has broken……

Thoroughly beaten by Mr Garry_Lager – he even had the decency to stop for a few minutes and untangle his bike 🙂 Thanks for the tow as it broke me away from a couple of people I’d been stuck with! Good ride mate.

Apologies I couldn’t manage much coherent conversation afterwards: 2 degrees, rain, headwind and filth kinda finished me off….

Last weekend was the last race of the season for the regional races series. I’ve been steadily getting myself up the finishers ranking with a 4 th place finish in the previous round. The last race was in real Belgian cross condition, heavy rain cold and windy with the course mud riding like treacle. This is a course that I like but they had changed it considerably making it far more technical. In the end I managed a podium. Third place so quite pleased with that considering the other two on the podium were more than twenty years younger than me.

Now it’s just the German championships in the second weekend of the new year. Hopefully I’ll have my new racing license( the one for this year arrived last Monday, even though my application started in Septembery) which means I can race with people my own age but on the other hand the leading rider is the current European champion. 🥺

Thoroughly beaten by Mr Garry_Lager – he even had the decency to stop for a few minutes and untangle his bike 🙂 Thanks for the tow as it broke me away from a couple of people I’d been stuck with! Good ride mate.

Apologies I couldn’t manage much coherent conversation afterwards: 2 degrees, rain, headwind and filth kinda finished me off….

Nice to say Hello today Mick – good racing. That was a hard day – Headwind one way across the course and heavy wet ground – felt like you had to throw the coal down to go 10 yards in places.

I’d temporarily cramped out when I saw you last lap – don’t know if it was the cold but I lost the front wheel a bit and put my leg down to save it, calf muscle clenched up into a ball. Thought it would be a DNF as it was excruciating, but it subsided quite quick and I was back underway no prob.

Fair play to anyone at Burnley yesterday. Great course but that field slog was pretty horrendous. managed 15th in the senior (midtable mediocrity, yay!) Not much post race banter going on as every one was back to there cars pretty sharpish. Thanks to all the marshalls too for staying out yesterday.

A fast and fresh final round for the welsh league at Pembrey today. In typical fashion the heavens opened and the temperature dropped for the seniors race. I took it steady from the start line then began picking places up. Had a good gap from a chasing bunch but couldn’t quite make it to @ferrals. In the end I’d just burned all my matches so rolled in 11th. And so ends my senior racing. It’s been fun.

Quick question rather than starting a new thread, what are the CX race bikes of choice at the moment, I’m looking at an Inflite (bit spendy) or one of the Giant TCX’s? Anything else I should be looking at, pref carbon frame.

The Ali Ribble looks OK

Specialized
Trek
Cannondale
Cube
Canyon
Ridley
Stevens
Ritchey
and the list goes on……

What are you racing on at the moment? An Inflite is very spendy if your new to it. Something second hand is worth a look, loads of decent used CX bikes about from people who gave up after a season. Lots of different bikes on the circuit, lots of Crux’s in our league (but they paint scheme stands out!)

Enjoyed the last welsh league race of the season yesterday. Very fast race, over 20km/h, which given the course was a lot twister than previous iterations felt pretty intense. Had a good battle with one of the Cardiff jif riders for a couple of lap but lost his wheel and instead concentrated on keeping clear of @shedbrewed and a couple of other riders. The gap varied from nothing to 75 yards for most of the race. Got overtaken by one in the last 1/4 lap and could close back up missing out on 8th by 2seconds. Best welsh league result of the season, felt focused on racing for the first time all season, think all the mince pie and booze consumption has topped up my energy levels 😂

Re. Bikes, i’d Think about geometry- cx bikes are quite divergent in geo this days from the trad like Ridley, to the more progressive slacker HA like focus or Cannondale. I ride a focus and love it for the stability over bumpier stuff and at speed but feel the lack of sharpness through twistier turns. If I was buying now would go for a Trek Boone if in your price range, purely based On specs not having ridden one, fairly neutral geo with the decoupler to smooth the bumps out. @shedbrewed has one so may be able to chip in on what it’s like

I was set to make an almighty (ahem) comeback at Burnley on Saturday, but turns out I couldn’t as the wife appears to have bought the contents of the Amazon warehouse so I was seconded to child watching duties while she contributed to major deforestation purely on the amount of wrapping paper required.

The eldest did however race in the U8 race, it was a pretty tough course for the little chaps & chapesses, with the spiral, field slog and the headwind thrown in for good measure. Thankfully the weather wasn’t at it’s worse, but it was still tough on the midgets. He did pretty well, came home 3rd boy (4th overall) with the tallest U8 Girl [Clarkson mode]In The World [/Clarkson mode] Miss Clegg taking 3rd overall place. He was pretty much the only one not crying by the end of it from the cold, a hot chocolate and his all in one ski suit soon got him warm again.

It was that cold they didn’t do the kids podiums and went for individual presentation in the signing on tent, which was a very wise decision.

Awwwww the poor little one …. Damn well done for raising a smile at the end of that !