CX race report - East and South East Regionals
Dec 4, 2017 22:19:08 GMT
Charliecod, Joe R Booth, and 8 more like this
Post by Dylan Bexley on Dec 4, 2017 22:19:08 GMT
A decent turn out from the Dulwich crew on Sunday at Stanborough Park near Welwyn Garden City.
The course was made up of mostly undulating to flat sections with 5-6 short, fairly slippery, but just ridable climbs and a couple of slick off-camber sections. It was not an overly technical course but the light rain in the morning and early rounds made for some pretty glazed corners and although it stayed together with not a lot of loose mud it was quite a testing and unrelenting course.
The sting was a pair of hurdles halfway up the 1st of the 3 short loop back climbs. They were probably the standard 40cm hurdles but being placed mid way up a climb meant that most ran the entire climb rather then attempt to remount and try and ride the second half. This was tough going and I am also pretty certain they got higher as the race went on!
The order of racing differed from the London League with the Women's and V50's going off after the youth and before the Juniors/V40's and Seniors. Olivia Campbell & Bethan Hodge rode well in the slippery conditions and managed very credible 11th and 14th places over all in the women’s field of 24 (5 & 7th in their senior category). I didn't see much of the race but feedback was the ladies rode well and enjoyed the testing conditions - afterwards of course! We all struggle to enjoy it at the time..
Charlie rode well in a field of 46 V50’s to finish with a solid 15th, to match his jersey number! He played it down but seemed pretty chuffed with that in a regional. Coach had pretty consistent lap times except for a storming second lap which was circa 20 seconds quicker then the rest. Must have been the heckling lifting him up a gear.
in the Junior / V40 race Eddie Davies was gridded first and got a flying start leading out the juniors for the first few laps. Eddie had a great battle with Oliver Howson (the Yorkshireman hailing from Boulder via Sussex) who ultimately got the better of Eddie on the second last lap after Eddie lost traction and had to correct on one of the tricky loop back climbs. By the end Eddie and Oliver were 1.20 minutes ahead of the next junior and had held their 1 minute lead over the Vets. Looking at these guys lap times it seems there was a bit of tactical play going on during their penultimate lap as their times drifted out by +15 seconds over their previous laps (which were around 6.28) before storming in 6.13/6.18 final lap. Putting that into perspective, Alec Briggs last lap, which was quick as he was battling for second, was a 6.16!
Still, second place for Eddie was a great result and worthy of the cheeky Snickers bar he awarded himself afterwards. Luke Levett also rode well in the juniors and finished up 17th. Luke later said it was the stop - start of the up-hill hurdles and follow up run to the top that he found the hardest part of the course, no arguing there!
Only myself from DP in the field of 53 Vet40’s. Not sure why as I have exactly zero BC points but I was gridded on the 3rd row. I managed to get a good start, dodging around some dodgy clip-in / gear shifting shenanigans in the first and second rows, before moving up into about 10th over the top of the first climb. I traded places with a few guys in and around 10-12th throughout the race, managed to stay upright for the entire race and held on to finish 12th. I, like some of the DP seniors found myself ‘riding in a void’ as Charlie called it with the next guy 6-8 seconds up the road and similarly behind (maybe less behind!). I spent the last lap, or at least the chimp did thinking ‘you’ve just got to stay upright’. Not sure Steve Peters would approve of that approach.
Seniors up next, with a field of 39. The course hadn't deteriorated that much over the day but certainly wasn't getting any grippier for the last race. Worth mentioning here that don't let the smaller field sizes fool you into thinking it should have been easy to get a solid result.. Seems being a Regional - A Cat race, with higher BC points on offer, attracts some strong riders in all Cats.
4 DP riders in the Seniors with David Rees on the second row, Matt Law and Alex Windett on the 3rd (from memory) and new DP CX member Sam ‘Tom’ Davey in the mix as well. Solid start from all the guys but the pace was very high from early on. Dave was back slightly on his first lap to about 10th. Alex and Matt looked to both find their rhythm early and looked (through pained faces) to be riding the course well. Sam also looked to be holding his own in the middle of the field. Meanwhile it was all going on at the front end of the race with Stephen James of Renvale RT just storming away from Michael Butler and Alec Briggs with an absolute show of force. He ended up putting 1.15 into these guys!
Not sure where but Dave was showing signs of having hit the deck with mud up his right side, but still ended up with a credible 12th which was a good result given the field. Matt ultimately couldn't match Alex’s power on the flatter sections who ended up stretching out the earlier short gap to over a minute by the end. Alex was no doubt spurred on due to a great battle with a Cambridge CC rider. They traded places a few times throughout the race and despite some solid heckling from the DP team the yellow CCC flash managed to get around Alex on the long finish straight and the slight left-right chicane before the finish made it too difficult for him to contest the sprint.
Alex collapsed into a well earned heap at the end of his sprint finishing 20th in the end, Matt held on to 21st with Sam a few places back but a well ridden 30th. Not sure if that was his first race or not but good show if it was!
So despite the prospect of some pretty wet weather on the drive up it held out and the Welwyn Wheelers put on a decent course and event, well worth the effort.
Get your climbing legs on Fryland’s this week!
