Morvelo City Cross – Halifax Piece Hall 9th November, who's in?

This Saturday 9th, sees round two of Morvelo City Cross in the grade one listed Piece Hall in Halifax.

Full details on http://www.citycross.co.uk

You can race whatever bike you like.

Nothing is perfect, that’s the fun bit.

With cobbles, grass, mud, sand, berms, spiral of doom, jumps and run offs it’s all in the name of fun.

Moto format knock out rounds with the finals at night under the flood lights.

This can only happen once.

There’s beer, pizza, hog roar, frites, cakes and coffee.

Roller racing, magicians and the ctc mini pump track.

Hope to see you there.

Emma

Probably ought to add a few details about the prizes….

Loads, from a Kinesis frame set to Bont xc shoes, Rapha kit, Castelli kit, Arundel goodies and more.

Your entry gets you into the big prize raffle, gotta be in it to win it.

I enjoyed the first one at the old Shrogs tip so much I am entering with my daughter too. Its her first race at the age of 8!

I’m getting excited at the thought of a day of cycling related activity with the family / Pizzas and beer!

I noticed that there are 2 Go Pro cameras to be one from Cycle Gear too.

Fingers crossed for good weather.

Hope to see more STwers there too!

am in for this too – on my old rigid mtb- whaddya reckon – slick tyres??

That grass was looking a bit sticky earlier…we’re ok to trash the lawns btw. This is the last big event in The Piece Hall.

Trophies are made from the sets in the courtyard

okay ta!

I wouldn’t go for slick tyres as the grass will get cut up very quickly!

16 tons of sand being delivered according to Twitter..you could always run teh mucky bits.
Puts one in a quandry about what tyres/ set up to run…
Sharp cornering on cobbles.
run ups,
mucky bits,
sand.

That looks ace. I’ll pop down to eat pizza/drink beer cheer everyone on. Note to self, must get a cross bike

don’t need a cross bike- load just do it on hardtails

Dammit. That looks like a great event (to watch) but I’ve got grown up stuff to do tomorrow or I’d get the train and go on the lash!

so – was it any good?

No chunkypaul, it was excellent.

The course was greatm with lots of cobbles and just enough mud to get in the way and make it fun.

There were some fun bits like climbing up the stage steps and running through the back of the stage, a scaffold bridge in the heats.

Then in the floodlit finals you went along the middle layer of the piece hall, by the shops.

I think it was the best bike related event I have attended!

I went to watch having ridden at the Shroggs event. I have to say I thought the Shroggs one was better, there just didn’t seem to be the same atmosphere at the piece hall for some reason. Weather was a bit crap so that probably didn’t help I guess, but I also thought that the course didn’t look great TBH – it looked too twisty and tight in the top corner to me. But, if the rider feedback is good, then I suppose that’s what matters though.

I did get to say hello to Singular Sam and ogle his puffin (fnarr fnarr!) which was nice.

I’m very happy that events like this come to Halifax and I hope they continue to come 🙂

chunkypaul – Member
so – was it any good?

Bloody excellent, flat out non stop racing on grit stone cobbles is the future.

I say non stop, but there were a fair few offs especially in the sand trap in the dark.

Proper close racing all round, and as a bonus I surprised myself with the result I got, let alone making it to the final

I went down with a few mates to watch for a bit, it was a good event. Plenty of people stacked it when pushing that bit hard on the mud section (was grass) all seemed to jump back up ok 🙂

It was a shame the weather was not the best otherwise I think there would of been a lot more people there…

Would of been nice to see more trade stands present. (Orange were there.)

Saw Singular Sam at the bike wash, nice line from him wearing full (own)team strip- “well even if your no good on the bike, you can still look the part”- classic – and he’s not even from oop-north!

I went to watch having ridden at the Shroggs event. I have to say I thought the Shroggs one was better, there just didn’t seem to be the same atmosphere at the piece hall for some reason.

I thought Piece Hall was excellent cos it was all self contained. Could see the whole course (especially from up in the galleries), hear the commentator and get food & drink all within the same area. So many CX races I’ve been too have bits of the course with no-one watching, can’t hear anything, no atmosphere but there it was good.

The course was about the best that could be done with that area (ie virtually flat) but it made up for it in technicality and by being different to every other CX course ever! I (just about) scraped through to the final where, as expected I was off the back almost immediately.

Would of been nice to see more trade stands present. (Orange were there.)

As were Felt, Charge, Hope, Morvelo, Joolze Dymond, another couple of clothing companies… Good work by Emma and the team to pull all that together, fantastic from Calderdale Council to let us wreck the hall and here’s hoping the CityCross returns again sometime with a similar kind of urban venue.

Yup, was excellent, arrived at 10am, didnt leave till 9.30pm.

Having also done citycross #1 i’d say this trumped it.
Course was really good fun from a riders point of view, despite being in a confined space the course actually flowed really well, cobbles were super grippy, grass and mud not so grippy.

Flood lit finals were crazy, genuinely some of the most run I’ve had racing in 15 years!

Off the bike there was plenty to look at, eat and drink.

Chapeau to organisers, Emma, Morvelo and all marshals and helpers.

Thank you from all of involved in putting Morvelo City Cross round two together.

It all feels like a funny kind of dream at the moment.

Think we really made history there. Thanks to some very forward thinking members of Calderdale Council.

To the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever raced inside a grade one listed building before. Let’s hope one day we get to do it again.

Congratulations to you all.

Emma

Arrived at Piece Hall five minutes before the start of (my) senior moto one – so the first lap was a very twisty learning curve. Great course though, especially the off camber mud slick in the bottom corner. Had a ding dong battle with Sam from Singular and a couple of others.

By the time I’d finished, my wife and our friends’ kids (who she was looking after) were freezing so that curtailed my racing for the day. On that point, one thing I would have appreciated would have been putting the races within categories closer together in terms of timing as it would have been a long day if we’d stayed to the final.

One other small thing, if you are going to advertise race entry as being £20 then don’t add a compulsory £2.10 admin fee. Just say the race is £22.10.

millscc – Member

Think we really made history there. Thanks to some very forward thinking members of Calderdale Council.
To the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever raced inside a grade one listed building before. Let’s hope one day we get to do it again.

There’s got to be some kind of Guinness World Record in the offing there surely.

probably for the highest number or corners in less than 50metres! or maybe for the longest skid mark on the upper balconies before the corners!

I went down and enjoyed the day! Nice beer too which makes a change at an event like that!

The only reason I suspect Calderdale Council let them wreck the place is that it will be closing down any month now for it’s renovation which involves levelling it out, getting rid of the cobbles, and adding in another entrance. Such a shame it probably won’t happen at the piece hall again!

Citycross II the Movie

Cracking video there