London CX League - Hog Hill, Sunday 21st December 2014

With no Central or Eastern CX League races a blank weekend was handily filled by the London League coming onto ‘our manor’ at Hog Hill.  The waterlogged claggy ground was rutted with large amounts of grass in the mix -  all the constituents that the early nomadic hunter-gatherers would have built round mud huts with.

John McDowall was our sole representative in the Vets 40-49 race.  A long difficult section after the opening road sprint contained a great many intriguing questions for the true CX connoisseur.  What line?  What tyre pressures?  When to get on and off?  Gear selection?  John said ‘sod that‘ and took  to the hoof almost immediately after the starting sprint for a jaunty two minute cross country run.  It was one of three sections that required lengthy amounts of running.  Other than that a race of lots of seated ploughing though the mud, clearing a mud encrusted bike, and attempting to get clipped in to pedals that just about remained operational was the order of the day.  It was hardly a CX beauty contest like the fast paced fury of RAF Halton earlier in the season,  but there was a certain grim pleasure in it.    Strong running helped John along, and from the back of the starting grid he worked his way up somewhere towards his usual upper mid-table mediocrity (32nd out of 100 starters and 23rd Vet 40-49)

Matt Crees was the only North Roader in the Seniors race with under-wheel conditions substantially worse after the course had been conditioned by the Vets.

Having not raced the London League this year Matt started ungridded and decided to start right from the back for riders to chase. The starting straight on the tarmac didn't last long and a pile up on the first corner in the mud had the whole field running for the next couple of minutes until the next tarmac section. Matt took the run easy with the aim to hit the riddable sections hard to gain ground from people exhausted from the run. The first lap had Matt in this usual spot but feeling strong on a course requiring so much running. The next lap Matt worked on catching the riders in front, closing the gap on runs until a small group of three formed. However, a lapse in concentration on lap four had Matt running wide on a corner and getting tape around the front wheel in such a way that a good 30 seconds was lost faffing around.  This sadly meant loosing contention with the group.

Matt had a good finish of 29th out of 47 starters, one of, if not the best of the year.