Category: Blog

A great course brought a satisfying result to a slightly off the boil cyclocross season for me. Dan Alexander had worked hard in designing an interesting course that was made very hard by waterlogged grass, turning to thick, sticky mud under all the wheels and feet going over it.  It turned out that each six minute lap had about 90 seconds of running on it – which would have suited me fairly well in theory, but I was a little bit off the boil with the tail end of a cold.  I finished 24th – my best National Trophy result – which should have pleased me but I know that the field was a bit depleted and some good riders didn’t finish because of mechanicals, etc.In the end, I was caught and lapped a lap and a half from the finish by a flying National Champion Phil Dixon, and soon after by team mate Rob Jebb who finished in another excellent third place.

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Continue reading “National Trophy round 5: Derby College”

Wow. If you look back through my cyclocross blog entries this year you’ll see me moaning about courses that are too fast and not hard enough. Well, at long last, yesterday’s national championships made up for that.

The course at Southampton Leisure Centre had been used before for national trophy races, but after a mild wet winter, it was charged up with water, and by 2:15 on Sunday, after various supporting championship races, the Elite Senior race was in nothing short of a mud bath. Laps were taking about nine or ten minutes, and there was plenty of running with the bike (heavy with mud), making this a tough one.

I had a pretty good race and felt like the 32nd position I finished in was about right (there was more than 70 starters). It was a tough trial from start to finish (as these photos taken by my cousin Adrian who lives nearby) show.

The best bit of the day, making the long journey all the sweeter, was that my team mate Rob Jebb finished a superb third, and qualified for a ride in the World Championships later this month.

Most of Southampton seemed to come home with me on my bike and in my (now filthy) kit bag.

Full results and report here on the British Cycling website.

Finally things started to come together in a National Trophy race for me this year.  Whilst 27th probably doesn’t sound altogether impressive, it signalled that I’ve started to shake off the demons that have delivered me to three dreadful rides in the premier UK cyclocross series.

It was a superb course – the hardest I think I’ve ridden for a few years – with slippy corners leading into rutted muddy bogs and some classic off-camber twists and turns made nigh on impossible by the thick mud.   I was just in a much better frame of mind than i have been for most of this season’s races and i didn’t panic when I fell three times on the first chaotic lap, fighting for places in a packed, panicking string of riders.
What capped it was that Rob Jebb, my Wheelbase team mate, won ‘our’ first ever National Trophy race, on a course that was suited to the stronger riders.

Race report and photos here.