Eastern CX League, Mistley, Sun 26th Oct 2014

A double CX header weekend for John McDowall and Bryan Holland racing in the Vets 40-49 at Mistley .  Steve James also made an appearance in the vets 50 plus race.

A incredibly tough course set almost entirely in a forest with lots of very tricky cornering and climbing required of the riders.   Limited overtaking opportunities where available due to the narrow forest tracks.  Apparently, most years Olympic quantities of running are required as the numerous rooty, steep slopes become unridable.  However, the drier weather this year meant the course was just about rideable through its whole length.    

In the vets 50 plus race Steve faced a slight panic as a broken spoke on the start line required an emergency dash to grab a spare that was just accomplished before the starting whistle (very ‘Kiely-ish’)  A good start from the North Road man set the scene for a tidy and composed race on a very trying course.  A fine 17th place at +6.17 down out of 47 starters meant the best result of the day for the North Road riders.

In the vets 40-49 race both John and Bryan faced up to a course that was not best suited to the ‘larger’ gentleman rider.  John’s post course recce proved as useful as a beetroot salad at a German meat eating convention as his first lap was an Inspector Clouseau of a shambles. Manfully he raised his game for lap two so that was just an appalling lap.   With the race bar set sub-terrainingly  low and toys coming close to leaving the pram, things improved as he got in a tight race with two other riders for some later race 'fun'.    Bryan got a decent start but was also not going well.  He managed to avoid going down at all, despite having regularly crashed at the same spot every lap last year.   A 'meh' of a race for the two North Roaders on what must rate as the demanding of CX courses that they have faced. 

Bryan was 19th at +6.20, John 29th at +8.00.  A total of 75 riders took part.