Central Cyclo-Cross League - MK Bowl Sat 26th Oct 2013

Central Cross League action for two North Roaders at the Milton Keynes Bowl.  John McDowall raced in the Vets event, whilst Matt Crees raced the Senior event.  The course was very much a WYSWYG layout -  What You See is What You Get.  Set on one side of a grassy escarpment, the whole course was in view as it wound its way up and around with a variety of challenging climbing exposed to a nagging wind.  

John starting out on the second row of the grid showed well on the longer climbs.  It was hard going, heavily grassed and bumpy under-wheel, which combined  with the hilly nature of the layout was leading to limited opportunity to get out the saddle and that can play havoc with a riders back.  It was a ‘suffer-fest’ not helped by John doing well enough to stay on the same lap as the leaders, truly a mixed blessing here, for a completed race time of 52.20 (12.20 mins longer than usual!)  The final two laps where ceremonial in nature as John’s back started its inevitable process of crumbling.  Fortunately, he had gaped his chasers and was too far adrift of those in front to even attempt any chasing down.  John came 18th overall in the combined Vets/Juniors/Women race (76 starters) and was 12th in the Vets 40-49 category.

 Two recent DNFs due to mechanicals where put behind Matt as he took part in the hour long Senior race.  The only advice a clearly cream-crackered John could impart was ‘to pace yourself‘   However,  from the start a high tempo was adopted and Matt managed to hold on picking a few riders off on the opening laps spurred  on by encouragement from the side. The high pace was telling and after two laps he was struggling to sustain it.  Matt made a mistake at the trickily located set of hurdles trying something new which cost him a good 20 seconds and left Matt out the back of the field and blown. Self preservation kicked in, and after a few attempts to close the gap to the next rider which went nowhere, he completed the rest of the race at a slightly reduced effort.

Matt has found the  Central League is much harder due to the seniors only race format, as most the slower riders opt for the novice men's race earlier in the day, something he may try in the future.