November 2, 2015

London X-League Rd 7: Ardingly.

By Ed.

With a big turnout this week with a lot of fast guys on a dead flat, muddy, draggy course it was always going to be a tough race and being gridded onto the second row was going to make the job even harder.However after a good start and some hard riding I was in the leading group of around 6 by the middle of the first lap. Soon after things began to split up as after the first few mins the fittest guys rode away into the distance, but I was hanging in there with a small group in around 5-6th place.

Then mid 3rd lap – Bang! My rear mech had become clogged with mud and grass and ripped off the frame. This is quite a common occurence in ‘cross but the first time for me. It of course renders the bike completly imovable so I was faced with a long run to the pits to jump on my spare.

Determined not to get another DNF this season I set of at a jog with the bike on my shoulder until a photographer pointed out I was missing the rear wheel! So back I ran, picked up the wheel, ran back past the photographer (see pic – why the hell was I smiling? Do I actualy enjoy this sh*t?), then slogged through mud all the way back to the pits.

Jumped on my trusty singlespeed mountain bike conversion and tried to make up the damage but it was never going to happen so I settled instead into working on my lines through corners and picking off a lot of riders one-by-one as I worked back up the field, which was quite good fun actually.

*Note the different bike in this picture.

So once again a poor result – 23rd place, but a sense of satisfaction that I crossed the finish line.

Cyclocross? Demolition Derby more like. Still love it though. If it wasn’t so hard mentally, physically and mechanically, it’d be a lesser thing if you get what I mean?

Back next week at PORC in Penshurst, probably on my mtb as the cross bike is catistrophically wounded.

Race Reports

Share: / / /

Back to Race Reports