The Racing Post – CX Season has begun

Still struggling with a knackered back (which kept me out last weekend) but determined to try and race tomorrow at Boggart Hole Clough. Got some new wheels to try out!

Mills Hills cx sportive for me tomorrow:

http://www.mytriclub.co.uk/mills-hills-sportive-14th-october/

£15 for a 30 mile loop and a pie seems good value… I’m sure my last hour long soaking and splattering cost that and there was no pie.

vegasdave, what are you wearing/riding? give me a shout next time, always good to chat to someone at these races

fontmoss,old Goldtec jersey and a black Cotic X…..and you? My Daughter was taking photos today,so there may be one of you.

White axis of weasel jersey on a white single speed

GWR/ Wessex/ Western cx in Swindon for me. Late race so a nice lie in tomorrow. 🙂

Good luck to all racing.

Usually it’s just me racing for our club, sometimes there’s another guy but today we have five!
Bandwagontastic

oldgit – Member

Usually it’s just me racing for our club, sometimes there’s another guy but today we have five!
Bandwagontastic

I’m the only racer of any kind in the group I ride with. The others don’t get cross at all!

No race in the welsh league this weekend, so I’m sitting here watching Peppa Pig wondering if the clear blue sky will last until my wife gets home from work and I can get out on the MTB..

wondering if the clear blue sky will last until my wife gets home from work and I can get out on the MTB..

(pats IJ on the back) it never does…it never does 😥

Round 3 all done and dusted. Five racing from our club today, four finished.
Very happy overall.

Seemed to go ok, was a bit chilly at 7.50… it’s nice only having one bike to sort out.
Just need to get my bike ready for next week’s cxl race.

Best result of the season for me. 5th overall and 4th in Vets class in the Wessex/ Western in Swindon.

A drying course made it heavy going to start with but got faster as the race progressed.

Mulletus Maximus – Member

Best result of the season for me. 5th overall and 4th in Vets class in the Wessex/ Western in Swindon.

These days I can only dream of 5th overall.

Actually, BITD when I was fast and skinny, I could probably only dream of 5th overall as well!

The result was helped by the fact a few were away competing in the national series, but a 5th is a 5th and I will take that whatever the circumstances. Still really chuffed though as it’s only my second season of racing. 😀

Well, first race finished. On a borrowed Ti SS with disc brakes and an inappropriate gear ratio. Still had a fantastic time, can’t wait for the next one. Wasn’t even last!

Photo Credit (and some more)

Shaping up for my first muddy one in three years 😛

Anyone thinking twice about going to Fowlmead for LL6, yes it will be muddy but it won’t be a quagmire. It holds up really well in all weathers and will still be fast.

reading cx sunday, not done any training this week, rain is soo demotivating..

Reading for me too. Missed it last year so I’m looking forward to it. Will be tricky conditions again, similar to last week at Swindon with all the ran we’ve had. 😀

Carmarthen under floodlights last night and for the first time this season I felt like I was racing and not just riding. Enough energy to time my attacks and use the course to my benefit when I was passing.

On the last lap a youngish rider caught me, but I’m guessing he didn’t have the experience to to realise he needed to pass me before the tight corners where I was faster than him. If he got in front he could have held me off until the finish, because it was difficult to overtake. As it was, I pulled away and got a nice gap by the line. Getting older does have it’s advantages! 🙂

I’m currently sitting out at the far end of the Oxford Central League race as the achingly fashionable members of the promoting club have forgotten to marshal the most difficult part of the U10/12 races. And I taped about 500m of the course when I arrived. At some point I shall wander off and get myself ready for my V45 race.
They’ve also got a ‘DJ’.
But it’s not raining, and the fog has lifted.

Nice to see you on the bike aP, very poor form passing like that though.

Very steep unrideable hills, treacle like mud and no traction from my bag wheel resulted in a very hard energy sapping race. Toughest race of the season so far. 😐

MM cracking course just up the road.

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Claggy[/url] by simondbarnes[/url], on Flickr

Yay, my broken body was recovered enough to let me race today after missing the last 2 NWCCA rounds. Tough course in Northwich, very claggy mud and plenty of running (arthritic shuffle) up muddy banks. Got a reasonable start but dropped right off mid race – really lost focus. Must thank whoever it was who lapped me on the penultimate lap who said grab my wheel. I did and stuck with him for a bit, really got me going again.

Discovered on the final lap that I could ride up the steps after the wooden bridge (and therefore also ride the muddy section immediately afterwards). Gained about 3 places. If only I’d tried riding it earlier in the race!

Was also my 1st race on tubs. Traction and cornering grip seemed much improved over my old clincher setup. That fact they save 2 pounds in weight helped too!

Looking forward to racing in Liverpool next weekend now.

what pressure did you have in the tubs mate?

did the Rapha supercross on Saturday – great race

Reading today was really hard work! today had me begging for a granny ring! mind you i doubt my mech would have actually changed down there was soo much claggy mud and stringy grass wrapping around everything that id happily ride the bike in simonbarnes picture.
Was soo muddy that when i wash pushing my bike up that **** steep muddy nightmare hill my rear brake was locked on and the front was trying to do an endo.. didnt know whether to stop and try clean it or carry on, was incredible.
bizarly my cx canti brakes still worked as good as i needed then too (probably going soo slow) but id manage not to crash or go out of control and had no mechanicals (apart from a few mud uncloging moments)

now i guess some dudes were swapping wheels and bikes but some riders didnt seem to be having the mud troubles i was having (some where) what is the secret!!!

didnt come last and had a sprint finish lol and beat some dude by a second (bet he wasnt expecting that) every place counts right!

destroyed but great race

what pressure did you have in the tubs mate?

My pump said 28psi. No idea how accurate it is though. Depending on conditions am going to run a bit lower next weekend.

A little muddy at Fowlmead today

Whoa, big picture!

That looks horrid 🙂

85th place for me today, best of the season so far (although there were fewer finishers than in previous rounds)

Simon, def get those pressures down to take advantage of the tubs. You don’t say what branding they are but at 85kg my starting point is 2.0 bar and fiddle to suit course, in the Clement and Tufo the starting point would be 1.8 bar as they are less supple.

My favourite bit from Sunday, not me in it BTW though that’s a team mate in green

Blazin-saddles

Simon, def get those pressures down to take advantage of the tubs. You don’t say what branding they are but at 85kg my starting point is 2.0 bar and fiddle to suit course, in the Clement and Tufo the starting point would be 1.8 bar as they are less supple.

Spesh Terras. Am currently the wrong side of 90kg so didn’t want to go lower than 28psi to start with.

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Muddy Cross[/url] by simondbarnes[/url], on Flickr

Ah, don’t Terras have a funny min pressure rating?

No national league race this weekend, but a training race instead.

Fun film here:

and here:

Blazin-saddles – Member
Ah, don’t Terras have a funny min pressure rating?

To be fair, I usually ignore stuff like that 🙂
Sidewalls say 30-90psi

The rims (BOR XMD 309) have a min pressure rating of 1.7 bar but I’d happily ignore that too if I wanted.

Brackley for the A5 Rangers CX on Saturday.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Can’t make Saturday, but will aim to be there the following weekend – after all I need to ride 3 races to get my 2 average scores! Rapha Supercross on Sunday – seems like rain now :o(

Happy with todays race even if I did feel like pulling out before I’d even started.
Rode a steady one and in the end I don’t think I did any worse than previous weeks.

Raced East Liverpool Wheelers NWCCA Round 6 at Otterspool today. Clear blue skies, fantastic course. Seemed to be going quite well although I’m sure the results will show otherwise!