Eastern Cyclocross League 3 - Baldock Sat 21st Sept 2013

Round three of the Eastern Cyclo-Cross League was hosted by CC Ashwell at Baldock.  A mild day but with a steady drizzle setting in for most of the morning meant a course that started out good-to-firm became more slippery as the day wore on.  A ‘traditional’ cross course that was mostly flat but with a layout that rose above the mundane because of a set of hurdles, a couple of grassy mounds requiring some running or low geared grunting to ascend, and plenty of off camber cornering.

In the Under 12s, Joe Kiely was in action again.  Despite some warm-up practice starts pre-race he unfortunately started poorly off the starting grid.  He battled hard through the field in what looked a fast’n’furious race to come home in sixth place.

In the vets race four North Roaders lined up at the start - John McDowall, Dave Kiely, Steve James and Simon Best.  A good start by John and Dave ensured good field position on the first lap.  John kept up the pressure in the early laps  and worked himself into a strong placing.   Dave found the going tough having misjudged his tyre pressures in the drizzly conditions, so that after a good start he faded towards the back end of the race whilst the opposite occurred for Steve who had started poorly but finished with gusto.  Simon at a disadvantage riding his MTB, suffered an early mechanical when his back wheel came out (?) and came to ground with a rather inelegant topple reminiscent of a collapsing triceratops.  

John was 14th (+4.49), Steve 29th (+7.50), Dave 30th (+1 lap and 0.20), and Simon a very creditable 54th (+1 lap and 4.49).  A full field again meant that John Rumbold was unable to sign on with 67 vets and 13 ladies on the course.

Hannah Ormesher was the only North Road entry in the ladies race.  A couple of chain drops on a bumpy section of the course made a dent in her progress although she professed herself ‘happy’ with how the race went.  She placed one position higher than last week coming sixth at +3.38.

The Seniors / Elite Vets race was also a full field (80 riders).  Sp the start grid found the two North Roaders, Bryan Holland and Matt Crees, a long way back from the start line. 

Bryan had an eventful first lap, starting well and gaining places on the first few corners. With such a large field the lap was not as furious as normal as people were forced to slow due to traffic ahead. A slide at an innocuous corner caused Bryan to go down delaying those behind and costing valuable places as he got up and remounted.  This was followed by a chain-off on the first climb, so that by the end of the first lap he was a good way behind his normal position. With an enforced slow start he was able to chase down riders though and gained back some lost time through the course of the race.

Matt had a  better start than last week but resisted the temptation to go too hard on the first lap but kept to his plan to pace himself.   A battle soon developed with a small group of riders and after a few laps they where swapping position regularly.  Unfortunately, Matt’s remounting was not going well so that he lost time on the group at each dismount point. About half way in to the hour he was suffering on a relentless course, eventually losing contact with the small group he had battled with for most of the race.  A learning experience again for Matt in his second cyclo-cross race, with more practice required on those unique cross skills such as re-mounting and off-camber cornering.

Bryan battled to 52nd (+1 lap 4.16) with Matt 70th (+2 laps 3.26)