Race Report - Single Speed Cyclocross European Championships
Mar 8, 2018 22:15:12 GMT
Nigel Wood, Charliecod, and 6 more like this
Post by matthewlaws on Mar 8, 2018 22:15:12 GMT
Last weekend six keen Dulwich Cyclocross Racers traveled to Koksijde on the North coast of Belgium for the annual Single Speed Cyclocross European Championships. The day unfolded to be a surreal and memorable day of racing in the snow and sand.
For those who don’t know, Koksijde is an iconic UCI cyclocross world cup venue on the coast of Belgium near the French border. The landscape is something of an oasis for a cyclocross rider, think fast rolling single-track, power climbs and large expanses of sand. On Friday evening the landscape was totally obscured by the a snowy blizzard and darkness fell over the town. We really didn’t know what we were in for, in fact almost everything about this race had been obscured by the organisers in a cloud of good humoured mis-information. Would it be muddy? Would it be sandy? Is it fancy dress? Is it OK to have a derailleur? One thing that was clear was that there would be plenty of beer and a lot of fun - with the Les Flamandss (the organiser) stating “Just in case some of you F***s think SSCX is supposed to be a serious thing... think again!”.
That night we picked up our starter packs from a local bar - where we got chance to rub shoulders with our fellow competitors and more importantly, we got chance to see their bikes. What became clear was that some people were taking ‘the whole singlespeed thing’ quite seriously...We inspected ratios (2:1 seems to be the way to go) and tensioning strategies. Out of our group, myself and Dave had done a full conversion, with the rest of the team opting to cable tie their shifters on the day of the race. We understood that would be ok, after all one of the rules of the day was to “***k the rules!”
On saturday morning we were up and out early into beautiful blue skies, sub zero temperatures and virgin snow. After following a series of signs through the suburbs, the secret venue was revealed to us; a school in the dunes close to the world cup course. The day had been split into a series of heats in the morning, followed by a Womens and Mens final later in the day.
Right away we did a couple of test laps of the course and it quickly became clear that it was a cross rider’s paradise - CX bikes work very well in snow and underneath it the ground was frozen with the sand taking on an uncharacteristically solid feel.
We were all allotted the same heat - starting at 9.30am, giving us the the most snowy conditions of the day. From the start line we got led into the dunes and told to leave our bikes in the sand. We then walked back over the dune where we were told to wait out of view of our bikes. The start was fun and slightly tense - we got chance to admire each other's fancy dress and have a laugh; I was in a spotted skinsuit - Charlie opted to disguise himself as a tablecloth and Dave was stormtrooper.
Suddenly it began - sprinting over the dune to find what had happened to our bikes. For Dave and I there were no problems - they were exactly where we had left them and I opted to run straight up the dune into the first section of singletrack; a move which put me at the front of the field for the start of the race.
Once started I could see Dave was near and I was waiting for him to catch me up - but the others had disappeared and I couldn't see them even on the long switch back straights. What had happened?
The racing was super fun starting with single track through tight bushes leading to a field of flat and twisty track with a bunch of power climbs thrown in. The middle section of the race was back into the dunes and at this time of day the sand-snow combo was firm and rideable. Towards the end of the lap there was a treacherous downhill sandwiched between a fence and trees. All of us had been challenged by this at some point and was the site of some of the biggest crashes of the day. Once safely down the hill all the racers were given a choice - take a beer from the beer tent or take the slow route which was routed through a tunnel in a playground. It was faster by far to take the beer and this was the approach we all took.
Beer and racing was a new experience (for me) and to be honest the hydration felt good - and the effects were mainly psychological but I was trying to use it to my advantage to give me confidence on some of the more sketchy sections.
At the end of the race I was in third - a result I was super happy with and also shocked that Dave hadn’t overtaken me. I think I was the faster and more skilful rider on the day :-P, however, he informed me that he had been forced to take the ‘non beer’ route through the kids playground for ‘going too fast’. He came in shortly after me but we were both confused about what had happened to Olivia, Alex, Aiden and Charlie.
They all had one thing in common - they had derailleurs. Which meant that their bikes got hidden at the start by the organisers. It was a single speed event after all and locking your gears with a cable tie simply wasn’t good enough. It turns out that their bikes got hung up in a kids treehouse - at the top of the dune. Aiden ‘took one for the team’ scaling the climbing frame into the canopy to hand down all the bikes while everyone else charged onto the course.
It was becoming clear that this was a day that where you started and finished really didn’t matter. At the end of the race we were all super happy - agreeing that it was one of the best courses we had raced in the most amazing conditions. The organisers had struck a fine balance between chaos and awesomeness.
After our heat was over we sat back, ate frites and watched the other heats where we got a taste of what the day was really about. The organisers had started doing all sorts to peoples bikes at the start - targeting the previous champions by wrapping their bikes in shrink wrap, or by removing wheels off the bikes of anyone taking things too seriously. Once the heats were over it was clear that they hadn’t been recording people’s positions so we assumed everyone would be in the final.
The Women’s final started a little differently with bikes being tangled in a rope climbing frame while the group was marched over the dune. Olivia had an excellent start managing to run down the dune and untangle her bike like a pro. She was quickest to start and led for half a lap and continued fighting hard to maintain her position. Adeline (an experienced London based rider) started last, but managed to work her way through the field into first place with some great riding. Olivia was doing well - making the most of the mid-race recovery beers and riding/running strongly through what was becoming a progressively tough course. The snow had melted to reveal lots of sand, and many more unrideable sections. For what felt like an age the organisers announced ‘last lap’ such that racers never really knew when it would end. In the end Olivia came in third - an excellent performance and well deserved after her dedicated season of racing in the London League.
Next up was the rest of the group. The organisers announced qualifiers for the mens final by writing numbers up on a board in the bar area - which was great for Charlie and Aiden who had both made it though. They had clearly shown an advanced level of skill that was deserved of being in the final. We were psyched about cheering them on - especially after Charlie had announced how he wasn’t going to take it seriously and had indulged in beer during the afternoon. Jonathan Dennis wasn’t even in the final, even after winning his heat by a country mile and being the current SSCXEU champion….
...And then it became clear; it was another case of subterfuge by the organisers - we were all in the final and the start was happening any second. We were all pointing in different directions, chatting and some of us had jackets and bags on. Then suddenly commotion kicked in like a crowd going into panic mode. The organisers politely announced ‘it’s starting now’ and the mad rush began with everyone running and jumping onto their bikes.
In the meantime Charlie was doing a warm up lap and after we had climbed the dune he shouted across to me ‘Mat has it started!?!!’. Not that it mattered. The final was a chaotic celebration of singlespeed madness; Fancy taking a shortcut? Sure. Wanna stop for an extra drink and a chat? No problemo. Want to race the whole course backwards into the direction of the race traffic? Go for it!
Charlie made the most of the in-race booze which had transitioned from beer to ‘primes’ by taking short (or extremely fast) laps, much to the amusement of the organisers. Olivia had organised the locals to provide extra strong and enthusiastic heckling for any Dulwich that came by. I struggled to keep up with Alex who was putting in a strong performance and Aiden was also riding strongly (albeit suffering from slight leg warmer wardrobe malfunction). Upon realising that it ‘might never end’ Aiden, Alex and myself decided to stop and have a beer and watch what was going on around us - it was quite a spectacle.
Through all this chaos, a handful of riders were riding super fast including Jonathan Dennis (who had recently won the London League) and Dave (East Kent champion!) who continued to push right to the end. The race was won by Gosse van der Meer - a fantastic rider sponsored by Bombtrack. The rest of us came second - which is official!
The next day we headed out and made the most of the local dunes to practice riding in the sand. It turns out that Belgians put bike tracks through their dunes and local dog walkers are excited to see cyclists! Afterall Belgium is the home of cyclocross and we’re now planning how to go to the World Single Speed Cyclocross Championships being held there in November. It was a great weekend hanging out with friends after a season of dedicated racing together. I think we’re all now feeling a void open up in our lives now that the cyclocross season is over.
If you want to see pictures of the day head to:
www.facebook.com/SSCXEC/
For those who don’t know, Koksijde is an iconic UCI cyclocross world cup venue on the coast of Belgium near the French border. The landscape is something of an oasis for a cyclocross rider, think fast rolling single-track, power climbs and large expanses of sand. On Friday evening the landscape was totally obscured by the a snowy blizzard and darkness fell over the town. We really didn’t know what we were in for, in fact almost everything about this race had been obscured by the organisers in a cloud of good humoured mis-information. Would it be muddy? Would it be sandy? Is it fancy dress? Is it OK to have a derailleur? One thing that was clear was that there would be plenty of beer and a lot of fun - with the Les Flamandss (the organiser) stating “Just in case some of you F***s think SSCX is supposed to be a serious thing... think again!”.
That night we picked up our starter packs from a local bar - where we got chance to rub shoulders with our fellow competitors and more importantly, we got chance to see their bikes. What became clear was that some people were taking ‘the whole singlespeed thing’ quite seriously...We inspected ratios (2:1 seems to be the way to go) and tensioning strategies. Out of our group, myself and Dave had done a full conversion, with the rest of the team opting to cable tie their shifters on the day of the race. We understood that would be ok, after all one of the rules of the day was to “***k the rules!”
On saturday morning we were up and out early into beautiful blue skies, sub zero temperatures and virgin snow. After following a series of signs through the suburbs, the secret venue was revealed to us; a school in the dunes close to the world cup course. The day had been split into a series of heats in the morning, followed by a Womens and Mens final later in the day.
Right away we did a couple of test laps of the course and it quickly became clear that it was a cross rider’s paradise - CX bikes work very well in snow and underneath it the ground was frozen with the sand taking on an uncharacteristically solid feel.
We were all allotted the same heat - starting at 9.30am, giving us the the most snowy conditions of the day. From the start line we got led into the dunes and told to leave our bikes in the sand. We then walked back over the dune where we were told to wait out of view of our bikes. The start was fun and slightly tense - we got chance to admire each other's fancy dress and have a laugh; I was in a spotted skinsuit - Charlie opted to disguise himself as a tablecloth and Dave was stormtrooper.
Suddenly it began - sprinting over the dune to find what had happened to our bikes. For Dave and I there were no problems - they were exactly where we had left them and I opted to run straight up the dune into the first section of singletrack; a move which put me at the front of the field for the start of the race.
Once started I could see Dave was near and I was waiting for him to catch me up - but the others had disappeared and I couldn't see them even on the long switch back straights. What had happened?
The racing was super fun starting with single track through tight bushes leading to a field of flat and twisty track with a bunch of power climbs thrown in. The middle section of the race was back into the dunes and at this time of day the sand-snow combo was firm and rideable. Towards the end of the lap there was a treacherous downhill sandwiched between a fence and trees. All of us had been challenged by this at some point and was the site of some of the biggest crashes of the day. Once safely down the hill all the racers were given a choice - take a beer from the beer tent or take the slow route which was routed through a tunnel in a playground. It was faster by far to take the beer and this was the approach we all took.
Beer and racing was a new experience (for me) and to be honest the hydration felt good - and the effects were mainly psychological but I was trying to use it to my advantage to give me confidence on some of the more sketchy sections.
At the end of the race I was in third - a result I was super happy with and also shocked that Dave hadn’t overtaken me. I think I was the faster and more skilful rider on the day :-P, however, he informed me that he had been forced to take the ‘non beer’ route through the kids playground for ‘going too fast’. He came in shortly after me but we were both confused about what had happened to Olivia, Alex, Aiden and Charlie.
They all had one thing in common - they had derailleurs. Which meant that their bikes got hidden at the start by the organisers. It was a single speed event after all and locking your gears with a cable tie simply wasn’t good enough. It turns out that their bikes got hung up in a kids treehouse - at the top of the dune. Aiden ‘took one for the team’ scaling the climbing frame into the canopy to hand down all the bikes while everyone else charged onto the course.
It was becoming clear that this was a day that where you started and finished really didn’t matter. At the end of the race we were all super happy - agreeing that it was one of the best courses we had raced in the most amazing conditions. The organisers had struck a fine balance between chaos and awesomeness.
After our heat was over we sat back, ate frites and watched the other heats where we got a taste of what the day was really about. The organisers had started doing all sorts to peoples bikes at the start - targeting the previous champions by wrapping their bikes in shrink wrap, or by removing wheels off the bikes of anyone taking things too seriously. Once the heats were over it was clear that they hadn’t been recording people’s positions so we assumed everyone would be in the final.
The Women’s final started a little differently with bikes being tangled in a rope climbing frame while the group was marched over the dune. Olivia had an excellent start managing to run down the dune and untangle her bike like a pro. She was quickest to start and led for half a lap and continued fighting hard to maintain her position. Adeline (an experienced London based rider) started last, but managed to work her way through the field into first place with some great riding. Olivia was doing well - making the most of the mid-race recovery beers and riding/running strongly through what was becoming a progressively tough course. The snow had melted to reveal lots of sand, and many more unrideable sections. For what felt like an age the organisers announced ‘last lap’ such that racers never really knew when it would end. In the end Olivia came in third - an excellent performance and well deserved after her dedicated season of racing in the London League.
Next up was the rest of the group. The organisers announced qualifiers for the mens final by writing numbers up on a board in the bar area - which was great for Charlie and Aiden who had both made it though. They had clearly shown an advanced level of skill that was deserved of being in the final. We were psyched about cheering them on - especially after Charlie had announced how he wasn’t going to take it seriously and had indulged in beer during the afternoon. Jonathan Dennis wasn’t even in the final, even after winning his heat by a country mile and being the current SSCXEU champion….
...And then it became clear; it was another case of subterfuge by the organisers - we were all in the final and the start was happening any second. We were all pointing in different directions, chatting and some of us had jackets and bags on. Then suddenly commotion kicked in like a crowd going into panic mode. The organisers politely announced ‘it’s starting now’ and the mad rush began with everyone running and jumping onto their bikes.
In the meantime Charlie was doing a warm up lap and after we had climbed the dune he shouted across to me ‘Mat has it started!?!!’. Not that it mattered. The final was a chaotic celebration of singlespeed madness; Fancy taking a shortcut? Sure. Wanna stop for an extra drink and a chat? No problemo. Want to race the whole course backwards into the direction of the race traffic? Go for it!
Charlie made the most of the in-race booze which had transitioned from beer to ‘primes’ by taking short (or extremely fast) laps, much to the amusement of the organisers. Olivia had organised the locals to provide extra strong and enthusiastic heckling for any Dulwich that came by. I struggled to keep up with Alex who was putting in a strong performance and Aiden was also riding strongly (albeit suffering from slight leg warmer wardrobe malfunction). Upon realising that it ‘might never end’ Aiden, Alex and myself decided to stop and have a beer and watch what was going on around us - it was quite a spectacle.
Through all this chaos, a handful of riders were riding super fast including Jonathan Dennis (who had recently won the London League) and Dave (East Kent champion!) who continued to push right to the end. The race was won by Gosse van der Meer - a fantastic rider sponsored by Bombtrack. The rest of us came second - which is official!
The next day we headed out and made the most of the local dunes to practice riding in the sand. It turns out that Belgians put bike tracks through their dunes and local dog walkers are excited to see cyclists! Afterall Belgium is the home of cyclocross and we’re now planning how to go to the World Single Speed Cyclocross Championships being held there in November. It was a great weekend hanging out with friends after a season of dedicated racing together. I think we’re all now feeling a void open up in our lives now that the cyclocross season is over.
If you want to see pictures of the day head to:
www.facebook.com/SSCXEC/
