Eastern Cyclocross League Team Championship - Sun 3rd Feb 2013

The last event on the Eastern League calendar was the Team Championship event at Mistley ran on pretty much the same course as we raced back in October. The racing there is technical and more akin to a MTB course with plenty of slippy off camber work, single track, tight turns, tree roots, boggy mud and hills aplenty. As a bit of fun to mark the end of the Cyclocross season, everyone seemed to be getting into team spirits and enjoyed themselves despite the chilly conditions. Dave Kiely and Steve James raced under North Road colours in the Vets race with their initial 3 man team down to just 2 as John McDowall took the wise decision not to race unwell. Hannah Ormesher, in the absence of fellow lady North Road Cyclocrossers, raced in a composite ladies team ‘Dirty Gerties’ (don’t ask!) with league friends. Joe Kiely rode with the U12’s Welwyn Wheelers.

 

Steve started on the fourth row which meant under the day’s team champs rules the front row had a 90 second start with each row of riders setting off at 30 second intervals. This did thin the field out well and there was none of the usual first bend chaos Mistley normally throws up. He was disappointed to see his one and only team mate, the ‘Kiely Dog’, staring at his broken chain after the first bend and realising that the planned team of three was now down to one.  However, he settled into the race well and the bike was giving good traction in very testing conditions with plenty off camber sections coated with a particularly slimy grade of mud prevailing everywhere. Steve soon realised that the course was better run for long sections (not as long as Dave) and used this to good effect to pass a fair few riders struggling for grip up Mistley's torturous hills. For once, Steve never came off, had some good battles on the overtaking sections, some super scary descents and was reasonably pleased with the race all in all.  Steve finished 19^th of 39 Vet riders with one DNF.

 

With Dave’s carbon steed in the bike shop being repaired due to the previous event’s cable snapping misfortune, he brought the old ‘back up’ Giant with its wobbly saddle out of retirement and gave it a chance at a ‘first and only bike’ outing. Dave’s chain snapped about 90 seconds in. Thinking of the entry fee and petrol money, his inherent miserliness left him with no option other than to continue on foot in an attempt at achieving value for money. Still he managed to coast a bit when the terrain allowed, but it was mostly a foot slog. Hannah, having started the race at the back of the gridding with the other women, noticed early on that something was wrong with Dave’s bike but didn’t know what had happened. She was both impressed and embarrassed that it took her two of the three laps she rode to pass Dave and this was achieved on the flat stretch near the start where use of the pedals was most advantageous. Mistley involves a fair bit of time spent coasting down tricky descents or running up steep hills (if you don’t have the legs or gears for them!) so if you were ever going to ‘run’ a cross race, this was probably the best course to have a mechanical on. Hannah’s race was fairly uneventful apart from a slip slidey moment which involved a tree and threw her chain off. This cost a fair bit of time as once you came to a stop in the slippy mud, getting momentum enough to get going again was a real challenge. Despite Dave running the race he achieved 36^th place of 39 Vets and 46^th of 56 riders in the combined Vets/Women’s standings. The organisers were so impressed with what they thought was Dave’s gritty determination they gave him a special mention at HQ and awarded a consolation prize of a cap and jumper. Hannah finished in ninth place of 17 riders with her team finishing second overall in the women’s standings and was delighted with an unexpected silver medal. Joe finished in 12^th place of 52 starters with his team achieving first^t place and the gold medal for the U12’s Team Championships.

Report by Steve James, Dave Kiely and Hannah Ormesher