The second round of the highest level of cyclo-cross competition in this country and I travelled down to Ipswich a bit nervous, but also a bit resigned to my form not being where it was last year.

Had an overdue bit of bonding with my Wheelbase team mates Rob, Stuart and Lewis (thanks for the lift!) and managed to keep it down to four polite pints of Guinness on the evening before.  Rob and Lewis didn’t snore: my luck was in !

The race day itself was very, very enjoyable.  I’d never turned up so early to a national trophy event so preparation was very relaxed and subdued.  The course itself was an absolute cracker – some testing technical bits but all pretty fast if you kept your concentration up.

The ‘other’ races (Juniors, Veterans, Women, etc) were good for the North West riders, which helped to make the day rewarding.

My performance in itself was still pretty lacklustre.  I had one of the slowest opening laps I’ve ever had at this level, which didn’t help, despite having a good warm up.  By the time I got myself motoring I’d ‘missed the train’ and could only make up a few places.  On the whole, my performance was better than Cheltenham and I was right on the nail with skills and technique, I just wasn’t fast enough.  More structure to the training will follow!  33rd in the end and a lap down on German winner Malte Urban.

Links:

British Cycling website race report and photos
Lots more photos
North West cyclo cross association website report. 

I organised a bike race on Saturday for the first time in a good few years. It was a really very satisfying experience. The ones I used to organise at Cheltenham – mainly road races and time trials – seemed to be such thankless experiences, where riders expected so much of you and were’nt willing to put themselves in your shoes. Not all the time, but most of the time, this was what it was like.

Organising any event like this isn’t particularly easy. You can be lucky with some things (the weather was near perfect, no-one crashed enough to warrant first aid), and other things you can plan (the venue itself was really good – self-contained non-prescious parkland with a course to challenge all abilities).

What you can’t stress enough though is how you rely on other people so much. My name was down as the organiser, but for Katie, it was just as long a day, and probably more tiring in many ways, because she doesn’t have the ‘things will be okay’ kind of attitude that I have at times like that.

The best bits of the day was the realisation that the North West Cyclocross community is a very strong one – and people were genuinely willing to help out wherever they could without being asked.  It really lifted me up.

So BIG ‘thank you’s go to: Katie, Jean and Bill, Matthew Pixton, Louise Gore, Stuart and Billy Reid, Josh Varty and his marshalling friend whose name I can’t recall, Wheelbase (for the generous prizes), Mick Spiers, Ray Pugh and everyone at Bury Borough Council Parks, especially David Wells.  Finally, thanks, of course, to mum, for babysitting Lily.  The day with Lily at my side not moaning and getting on with things would have been blissful, but utterly unattainable.
Would I do it all again?  You betcha.

The race report and photos can be found here.

This is quite a ‘precious’ event for me as it goes back in its early days to myself and Pat Alexander organising the first ever cyclocross in Pittville Park. I was slightly disappointed to not have a good race on what should have been a good course for me.

I finished 38th in the end but should have really been a bit better than that. I can’t blame anything and hate using excuses – I just wasn’t fast enough. Need to work on that.

The course itself was really enjoyable to ride and I had the bonus of some welcome support from ex-clubmates at Cheltenham as well as a good family contingent.

Having to work on the fitness now!