London CX League - Beckenham Sun 5th Jan 2014

Cyclocross action on this first weekend of 2014 was London League at Bethlem Hospitial in Beckenham, Kent. Four riders made the journey across the Thames: Hannah Ormesher, Dave & Joe Keily and Steve James. John McDowall taking a rest to avoid further damage to his man parts following a botched remount last week.

 

Joe was riding suffering the tail end of a bad cold and started ungridded at the back. However he worked his way up to the front, where a group of three created a big gap on the rest of the field. With second place looking secure after he was unable to match the winner in the sprint, Joe made the cardinal sin of "sitting up", giving the rider in third a carrot to chase. He was pipped on the line to take third – a harsh lesson learnt.

 

Hannah’s first London League race of the season was going to be a tough one with a handful of national level riders out to play. The women were gridded in the top third of the vets field which was actually an unusual (and slightly confusing) but great way of doing it as she was in the same race as Dave and Steve

 

She got an ok start in with the masses and managed to avoid a lot of the initial bottle neck over the rutted ground by running. Once back on the bike the course proved itself to be a bit of a monster. There was a long field section with the most leg sappingly slow mud ever ridden, the prelude to which was a sloggy woodland section with thick, cloggy mud which got your heart rate right up with the worst yet to come. The warm up recce did little to prepare Hannah for the race as the course was in a state of flux! Lines which were fast on the warm up became boggy and slow. Every small movement was hard work in the gluey mud. When racing is slow it doesn’t feel good, a lot of effort for not much movement.

 

Hannah had a mechanical when her chain shifted into the spokes going uphill and this cost her places in the women’s field as she had to dismount, pick out the chain and then push the bike up the slope having lost momentum. Dave and Steve also passed her here which was disappointing as she was using their gridding places behind her for motivation. ‘Try not to let them catch you!’. Their words of encouragement as they passed were appreciated though!

 

From then Hannah was engaged in a battle with a London Dynamo rider for fifth place, with the LD rider being stronger and using better lines on the muddy field sections but Hannah passing her on firmer ground. On the last lap Hannah took a leaf from LD’s book and followed the line she had been using which was actually, counter-intuitively, faster (straight through the middle avoiding the edges). She managed to secure her slight lead on the LD rider and finished with clear day between her and her rival. Fifth on a tough course in tough competition, not bad but there’s another chance on the return visit to this course on the 26th of Jan to improve on that!

 

Dave and Steve set off towards the back of the ungridded masses swapping post Christmas excess, defeatist excuses before the whistle blew. Early excitement was a downed rider in the first 50 meters who somehow came to grief on a dead straight flat section and was last seen rolling into a ball hoping none of the 100 riders would impact him.  Dave and Steve both made a good decision to get off early at first lap bottleneck to make up a few paces by running through. Dave, however  tried to run over a tree stump, tripped and went to ground and blocked everyone with his bike (again) earning me some fairly sweaty reprimands. Dave had a small lead over Steve on the first lap. Steve then found his racing legs again and caught Dave on the fast downhill section on the second lap and maintained this lead so that after the third lap he had 20 seconds over the Kiely Dog.

 

A victory over the Kiely Dog looked on until Steve made his first mistake in the deep, deep mud going into the woods on the final lap, came off and had to run for a long while until he could remount. KD must have made some ground up there as later on the lap Steve was brought down and locked in a tangle by two other riders and Dave nonchalantly passed him at the point kicking the metaphorical sand in his face and danced on his grave. Steve got up, ran for a bit, hopped on, pedalled away only to realise then that his chain was off. Once that was dealt with Dave was well away and despite a catch attempt Steve had to accept his fate.

 

This was a really great course of two halves, exceptionally muddy and technical through the woods, including a log to bunny hop and a soggy meadow which was time trialler’s paradise. It was painful, very painful. Good news is London League are back there on Jan 26^th.

 

Scores on the doors

Dave 60/101 42’53”

Steve 66/101 43’ 39”

Hannah 80/101 but 5^th lady from 12  - 46’37”

Winner was Kevin Knox of Vicious Velo. First lady was Claire Beaumont of Vicious Velo.