Central CX League - Hillingdon, Sun 14th December, 2014

Tue 16 Dec 2014

A return for the Central Cross League to the Hillingdon circuit.  A course that tends to be in one of two conditions - bone dry or suitable for planting serried ranks of root vegetables.  In the middle of December it was inevitably the latter.  A cookie dough mud texture combined with thin wispy grass  had all the makings of a tough day for man and machine.  It was also a course for breaking out your running shoes for some long sections of cyclists do comedy running. 


In the Vets 40-49 race John McDowall, Dave Kiely and Bryan Holland took to the starting grid.  A two rider stack right in the hurly burly of the opening sprint started a race of attrition as more riders than usual became DNFs.  Bryan got his usual good start and was powering away.  John had a fair-to-middling race not helped by  some minor mechanical issues that did not seem to be solved by him swearing a lot at his bike.  Dave settled in gamely to his ‘return to racing’ rhythm despite being troubled by his shoulder injury.


 The Seniors probably got the best conditions of the day as the course was drying out .  Matt Crees lined up alongside Paul McGrath and Adam Stone.  However, it wasn’t Matt's best race of the season although this time it was more struggling for technique than struggling for legs. An off on the ice the day before, as well as some freshly glued tubs resulted in rather more care than usual through a twisty course which required you to be on top of your bike handling game.  A last lap crash involved  landing on the previous days road rash and dodgy shoulder summed up a difficult race.


Adam was looking forward to racing Hillingdon sporting some new stripy socks in NRCC colours that needed a wider (sunglass wearing) audience.  Although ungrided, Adam initially made  good progress though the field towards a mid-pack placing  The going was slippery and losing the front end a couple of times dented Adam’s confidence a little. The twitchy corners and off-camber course combined with a completely jammed rear mech meant that the places Adam had made up he sadly proceeded to lose again in a game of CX snakes and ladders.


Paul McGrath was the star of the show with a superb ride in his debut CX season to claim second place.  A late arrival meant his preparation was a little rushed and the all important tyre pressures had to be dialed in with a fair bit of guesswork.  An average start from Paul but  he was towards the front of the race by the end of lap one and had worked clear of the leader by lap three.  Unfortunately running tubeless tyres he hit a bump and ‘burped out’  some air leaving his front tyre with minimal pressure.  With that his bike handling was compromised and he had to ease back and concentrate on holding on to second place. Sadly, it was a case of what could have been, as Paul is sure with a proper practice lap and setting his tyre pressures correctly he could have secured a win.


A fine tenth place for Bryan in the vets 40-49, with John 21st and Dave an improving 37th.   In the Seniors the results take on a pleasing symmetry with the Vets - Paul was second, Adam 20th and Matt 30th rounding off a good set of results from all the North Roaders.

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