Central Cyclo-Cross League - Hemel Sun 13th oct 2013

Hemel provided the next installment of cross action in round three of the Central Cross League.  Torrential over night rain had lingered well into the morning which combined with the effect of the junior races before the veterans event left a course heavily cut up.  With half the action in a forest section set at a jaunty off-camber angle it was clearly a course that would require a bit more off-bike leg work than is usual.

Both of Dave Kiely’s children, Joe and Abi, raced in their respective events both suffering falls in the tricky conditions.  Joe came second in the under 12 boys whilst Abi came fifth in the under 14 girls.

Lawrence Brenchley was off first in the Vets +50 race, closely followed by John McDowall and Dave Kiely in the +40 event, with Hannah Omersher starting behind the veterans in the ladies race.  Matt Cress was racing later in the separate Seniors race.

John and Dave where quickly locked in a titanic whole race battle for supremacy.  On multiple occasions both had seemingly gained the upper hand with a significant lead before the cyclocross gods intervened in the shape of  slide outs, getting bogged down, mechanical issues or a muddy bank that John insisted on continually falling over on and scurrying up on all fours like a wounded badger escaping the cull zone.  It was epic stuff, Lawrence was caught at some point, but neither rider noticed so intense was the battle on a course that was becoming difficult to stay upright on even when on foot.  Lots of running is generally discouraged in cross these days,  but it was unavoidable in these almost Belgian conditions. Indeed, the North Roaders thought they did more running in this one race than in all their previous seasons of cross racing put together!  In the end it came down to the final sprint for the line after a long run through and out the forest.   John had ran hard gaining a clear lead but paid for his effort as the Kiely Dog mustered his resources on the bike to pip his team mate in an exciting sprint.

Dave came 14th in 46.45 with John 15th 46.49 in the Vet +40 (20th and 21st in the combined results out of 67).  Lawrence finished in 10th in the vets +50 (33rd overall) 

Hannah Ormesher got a good start off the front row of the grid and found herself in third position after the first set of off-camber turns.  Hannah managed to close in on second placed rider and pass her on a short slippy hill where the dismount and remount were key. It was an exciting first lap that was slow through the wooded sections as the ladies caught up with the back of the vets field early on, this meant lots of close racing and passing on tricky technical sections of the course.  Tantalizingly Hannah briefly held  first place but sadly lost the lead with a slide out on a corner.

 

 A tight finish looked on the cards with the third place women gaining, but with Abi and Joe  cheering from the sidelines and shouting 'sprint for the line.' Hannah realised it was the last lap having not heard the bell so was pleasantly surprised, and not a little pleased to see the checkered flag out!  Another impressive result for the ever improving Hannah, finishing second woman of 13 and 29th overall.

Matt Crees in the Senior race faced a course that by then resembled an ooze not dissimilar to that of a thick soup and as a result trying to ride sections was harder than nailing jelly to kittens. Starting on the second row of the grid getting any sort of traction was a challenge with many riders failing to get any grip off the line.  Matt, forewarned by the other North Roaders, wisely decided that it was going to be more of cross country run with some  riding which helped him to battle past a fair number of riders on the first lap. The second lap started well, and he found himself in a battle with another rider for the second week in a row, with shouts of encouragement/taunting from North Road corner helping/grating so that Matt built a nice gap on the riders behind. With another rider in sight ahead the chase was physically on but not mechanically on as his rear mech hanger gave a tortured snap and that was that.  A similar fate had befell other riders so that out of 40 plus starters only 29 finished.