Monday 30 December 2013

Todmorden CX- Yorkshire Points Round 9

TodmordennounA town in Calderdale, West Yorkshire.A permanent mud bath, where crazy cyclo-crossers grind up cobbles, battle through mud and run up steps each year.
Every time I have raced at Todmorden, except once, there has been deep mud; thick, sticky mud that makes every inch of the course a leg busting slog. For that one exception, the course had frozen solid, which turned it into a skating rink, with some of the course removed for being too dangerous. I'm not sure there has ever been a race a Tod with dry, green grass, even for the summer series race it was a mud bath. For the final round of the Yorkshire Points Cyclocross series, it was no exception, with much of the course unridable or quicker to run, due to thick, deep mud.

After getting to the race early, I sat in the van and thought why the hell I was there. Outside, it was only just above freezing and I'd have to go and prance about in deep mud for an hour, whilst freezing my knackers off. I began to think what I could get from the race: the satisfaction of races, the ability to indulge in large quantities of food afterwards, complete my set of 7 races to count for the series, maybe get a great result… the list goes on. But, all I could think in my head was of the warmth of my bed, that I had dragged myself from to come to this muddy and cold park in the depth of the Pennines.

However, I soon realised I was being a complete wimp, pulled on my cycling gear and headed out to the course.

There weren't many changes to the course compared to previous years. The start loop took you around two waterlogged football pitches, as if to say "if you weren't cold on the start line, you sure will be now!", and then joined the proper course just after the finish line, the start of the upwards struggle. Although the first section was pretty flat, the deep mud made it feel like a 20% gradient, with it only marginally quicker to ride, over run. After a quick 'break' on the tarmac path, you hit a wall of sheer mud, deep enough to engulf your shoe and ankle, which took you higher up the valley side. Sadly, this resulted in your feet turning into two balls of mud, which made clipping in for the following stretch of path a nightmare. This path was the calm before the storm, or the hill before the mountain. After taking the sharp right hand bend at the end of the path, you are faced with "The Chimney", as it is called on Strava. A few hundred meter section of cobbles, with an average gradient of over 20%; not hard enough for you? Add in the fact that the cobbles are as slippery as ice, meaning standing up is not an option. Running is also not a good idea; there is very little room alongside the cobbles, and cycling shoes definitely won't grip them. When the suffering does end, and you reach the top of the cobbles, there is a slight relief that the course is pretty much downhill from there. The top section of the descent incorporates a tight chicane, and then small a set of steps, made possible by the course coming back in itself. From there to the pits, it was nearly all mud, which mostly was quicker to run, even with the downhill gradient. Then, after a definite bike change, you negotiated the small maze of slippery hairpins, before crossing the finish line.

Tough, but fun. Any thoughts of my nice warm bed had now long gone from my head. Time to race!

I sat on the start line cold, but focussed on a good start off the line, which is actually what I didn't get. I set off, but my legs seemed to have no go. I tried to power on, but people just kept coming past; this wasn't a good sign. I kept powering on and eventually I stopped slipping back places and actually made some advancement. I made up a few places on the boggy slog, and then nearly half a dozen on the 'wall of mud' run up. Finally I was finding some speed! After a little bit of a let up on the path, we hit the cobbles. I rode them nearly all the way to the top, but a rider in front had slipped, forcing us all the get off and run. Everyone decided to jump back on their bike pretty much straight away at the top, but I decided to run that little bit further. This gained me about another 3 places, and I was finally among my usual rivals.

The infamous cobbles
For the start of the next lap, I was alongside Ben Cooper, who I'd been very close to in previous races. On one of the running sections we joked "what a nice day for a run it was" (obviously not trying hard enough). I was with him until the cobbles, where I managed to dig deep, avoid slipping and ride all the way to the top of them. I'd managed to open a gap on Ben, and, so, set to work catching James Dalton.

I eventually caught James, and stayed with him for a few laps. Then, like I did with Ben, I managed to drop him on the cobbles. I was free to keep pushing on, with the next rider in my sights being Jon Hopkinson.

I measured my gains on Jon with the top section of the course, where it loops back on itself. I was hardly catching up with him though, and, behind, Ben Cooper was making his way back up to my wheel. I checked my watch- 45 minutes of racing gone. The bell can't be far away!

I really dug deep for the last two laps, and began to see I was starting to catch Jon. I powered up the cobbles for the penultimate time, and pushed on to the descent. That was where disaster struck; my tub rolled on the first corner of the chicane. I pulled it back on as quickly as possible, but by this time Ben had caught be up and powered on ahead. I was able to ride on my tub, but I had to take it carefully on all of the corners, which meant Ben's gap only increased.

I changed bikes in the pits, just before receiving the bell, for the last lap. Ben now had a large gap, and there was little chance of me catching him. Naturally, my pace eased slightly, and I carefully made my way around the last lap, trying not to make any last minute mistakes.

I crossed the line in 7th place overall, which was one of my best results of the season, and pretty commendable considering my start. But in my head all I could think of was the 6th place and potential 5th place I could have had, if it would have not been for my tub rolling with a lap and a half to go.

7th place though, I have to say, was still a pretty good placing, which was made even better when I found out that it had pushed me up to 5th overall in the Yorkshire Points series. 2 points ahead of Dave Morris, who I'd had many battles with though the series.

I'd like to thank my amazing pit crew, who had to work none stop for this race due to the mud. My next race is at Ripley Castle on New Year's Day; perfect for starting 2014 with.

Addicted to cross? Then check out www.cxmagazine.com for all the latest news, reviews and action from around the globe; and if you like what you see, why not subscribe and get 10% off by using our voucher code, which you can get by dropping me a message.

Friday 13 December 2013

North of England Cyclocross Championships- York


A lot of people think that there is no such thing as luck. Supposedly, the more training and preparation that you do for something the luckier you get; in other words saying that luck is just another way of denoting the amount of preparation someone has done. Although I believe this to be true, in a bike race you will always need a bit of pure luck. Last month I experienced very little luck, resulting in a DNF because of a mechanical, a missed race because of illness and another mechanical, reducing any chances of winning the race. November was an incredibly frustrating month, and I wanted to start December off on a positive note, hopefully, with a good result at the North of England Cyclocross Championships.

To the soundtrack of Muse and White Lies, I arrived at the venue, York Sports Village, nice an early, with time to get a practice lap in and watch some of the other racing. The Senior race, which I was competing, was not starting until 2:30, so I was still deciding whether or not to put my bright winter lights on for the later stages of the race.

Should be suffering not grinning- sorry!
From afar, I have to admit I didn't really like the look of the course- it looked flat and a bit 'tame' for my liking. I've never really suited flat, fast course; hard gruelling climbs, tight technical singletrack descents and a good load of running was more my cup of tea. But, on my practice lap I found that the course had more depth than just an off road crit race circuit; there were a few stings in the tail. The course began with a number of sweeping, slippy corners, some being off camber, which snaked their way around the area in front of the sports complex (I'm sure any spectators watching the swimming would have been distracted by the more interesting event happening outside). After one final sharp left corner, the course headed straight, passing the pits for the first time, and up to the higher part of the course. A number of switchbacks took the course higher up the gradual banking. At the top was two very slippy off camber climbs, which had multiple route choices and felt like a balancing act between power and stability while riding them. Following on from this, the course entered deeper mud, where the course took a sharp right over a steep sided ridge. In practice I was able to ride the ridge, but sharp drop coming off of it resulted in a momentary front wheel manual. Definitely a runner in the race. From there, the course headed down towards the pits again, with a tight chicane and a few sweeping corners on the way. From the second passing of the pits to the finish there was very little technical riding. The course followed a fenced ginnel, before emerging on the neighbouring road race circuit, for the final stretch of the lap. You don't usually have such a long section of tarmac in cyclocross races, but this section really added something to the course and I thought it was pretty cool- a nice component to a pretty fun and varied course.

The team
Anyway, onto the race.

Being the North of England Championships, the field size was about double the size of a normal Yorkshire Points race. The cream of the crop had come from the North East, North West and, of course, Yorkshire to battle it out here in York, which added to my surprise when upon gridding I was called up for the second row- there was no excuse for a bad start now!

Thankfully, come the fire of the gun, I got my foot in and was away and still high up the field 200 meters up the road. The skittishness of riders behind me on the first corner adided my advantage. Entering the offroad section for the first time, the field had already become strung out, but I was sat in the top quarter and was hungry for more places, I felt good.



Not long after, gaps began to form and grow, gaps that I made it my mission to bridge. I managed to pick off a few places without any major injects of pace; I simply maintained a good tempo and gradually caught up with the next wheel up the road. I was ahead of the usual race nemesis Dave Morris, as well as a few others I'm normally battling with. Feeling comfortable, I watched the minutes tick by on my Garmin; but maybe I was feeling too comfortable, for behind me, gaining time on me each lap, was Ben Cooper, a fellow under 23 and a threat to my current position in the class.

A couple of laps later, Ben bridged the gap to me, immediately trying to pass and drop me, but I was straight onto him and sat on his wheel. By this time, I had worked out that me and Ben stood as second and third under 23 on the road. My main focus went on sticking with Ben and trying to get that second place.

The sun began to droop towards the end of the race

I sat on Ben's wheel for most of the race; we were both pushing hard, but he couldn't drop me, and all I wanted to do was stick with him. I didn't even think of riders up ahead, but I knew no one could catch us. In my head, I was planning on attacking Ben with a lap to go, and do as little work as possible during the sections with headwinds.

With about 1 to 2 laps to go, I made my move, trying to get a gap on Ben. I pushed hard for maybe a quarter of a lap, but I didn't succeed and we came back together. I could tell it was not just me who was fatigued; Ben and me were both breathing deeply and suffering a little. Unfortunately, this got to me more and just before receiving the bell to signify the last lap, I made a stupid mistake on the off-camber section, loosing some time, and Ben got away. I chased hard. I couldn't let him get away after our near whole-race ordeal.

Pushing hard to get back onto Ben's wheel

Just after the bell, I got back onto the wheel of Ben, but this time I was definitely more fatigued than him. I couldn't pass him, so just sat on his wheel and tried to get a little respite. But then came that off-camber banking again. It was either psychological or just plain fatigue that caused me to make the same mistake I made the previous lap, but nevertheless, it resulted in the same outcome. Ben got away again, which left me chasing.

With less than half a lap to go, Ben had about 30 meters on me, and I was digging desperately deep to claw it back. We both entered the tarmac section, running up to the finish line, with about 20 meters between us. We sped round the final two corners, coming into the final straight, with Ben still ahead. I stood up, putting in all I could to try and get him on the line. But it was not to be. Ben finished just under 10 meters ahead of me, meaning I finished as 3rd under 23. A bit annoying, but hey, 3rd is still pretty good.

There was a silver lining to my slight annoyance though. The battle between me and Ben in the final couple of laps meant we made up about 3 places overall in the Senior race. This meant that we finished 11th and 12th, which I have to say, I'm pretty damn pleased with. It was nice to see that a bit of proper training was taking effect, and I was definitely in a good mood that evening.

There was a pretty stunning sunset over the course
Finally, I would just like to say thank you to my dad for pitting for me, as usual, to my mum for the photographs I have used, and also to cxmagazine.com for kit and support. Check them out at http://www.cxmagazine.com where you can currently get 10% off a subscription, a perfect gift for any cyclocross fan this christmas. If you want the voucher code, just drop me an email and I will happily sent it out to you.

My next race will be the National Trophy cyclocross at Peel Park, Bradford this Sunday. It's gonna be a muddy one!



Wednesday 4 December 2013

Up, downs and more downs- November race round up

Beautiful scenery, great cafes and no school. At the end of October I was lucky enough to spend a week in the lowlands of Scotland getting some good training rides in amongst some of the best scenery the UK has to offer. Although initially disappointed about taking road bikes instead of mountain bikes, being so close the trail heavens of Glentress and Innerleithen, the quiet, scenic passes soon made up for it. Ride after ride provided beautiful views, awesome descents and Alpine-esque climbs; I couldn't help but go out and ride. During the week I got in some good quality training and was looking forward to testing out my form at the Graves Park cyclocross, in  Sheffield, on the first weekend on November. I'd ridden there before, and still had a clear recollection of the steep, technical singletrack and almost vertical run up. For me, it was a course that ranked highly. I couldn't wait for it.



However, waking up on the day before the Graves Park race, reacclimatised to English weather (what felt like 10 degrees warmer), my body had different ideas about racing. My stomach felt like it had quartered in size, which forced me to hunch over, with the result of severe pain if I stood up straight. Much to my disappointment, the pain was still present come race day. I remember how much I wanted to race, but I knew that I probably wouldn't survive a lap if I did manage to actually start. It was frustrating that I couldn't give my legs a good beating and try out on such a good course; but after an eventual visit to the hospital, I was certain I'd made the right choice in not racing. All I could do was rest up and look forward to the next weekend's racing.



The following weekend I was back in Sheffield, making it three weekends in a row racing in and around the city. Future town of residence maybe? It at least seemed to be hinting at it. This weekend it was the final round of the British Mountainbike Orienteering Series, and I needed a good result to complete my counting number of races. However, my desire did not become reality and I had to settle for a below parr time and position after suffering a puncture early on in the race. It was a shame as I had quickly got myself into a rhythm and had negotiated the first 7 or so controls with no problems. After racing in Portugal less than a month previous, I had some new found experience with MTBO, and I could tell. Unfortunately, the puncture cost me over 5 minutes, which in the end considerably shoved me down the rankings. On the plus side though, I was able to finish the race and didn't have to settle for a DNF next to my name. The area used for the race was awesome; it provided technical navigation, amazing riding and some unusual features (one control was inside of an abandoned building). The race definitely put the MTB into MTBO; tight singletrack snaked all over the area, and it was choosing between these tracks and the slightly longer but less technical, wide paths that in the end decided the overall winner. It was just a shame I was not up there contesting that top spot.

After two weekends of racing and no good race results, I did finally get one pleasing result. I'm guessing lady luck thought it was only fair, with it being my birthday the previous Friday. On the third weekend in November, I competed at the annual Ilkley cyclocross race, deciding not to race at the national trophy in Durham due to a large amount of alcohol being consumed two days earlier for my 18th birthday. And, I have to say, I am very glad I did race at Ilkley; the course was immense! Joining the course, for my warm up lap, on the lower part, I got the impression that it was just your ordinary cyclocross course; lots of grass, lots of corners and some mud thrown in for good measure. It would have been an OK course with just this, but it was nothing special. However, the course eventually did swing off and into the neighbouring woods, getting a whole lot steeper in the process. After a few twists and turns taking the course higher, the gradient ramped up again, this time, making it unrideable. The run up was only just runnable; the mud had made it incredibly slippy and walking was very tempting. The gradient did subside a little, but it was still quicker to keep running rather than jump back on- the top way in sight. A hairpin bend saw the course rocket downwards, MTB style. Fast off camber corners littered the decent, and the roadies were to be put far out of their comfort zones. Near the bottom, the course turned 90 degrees and continued across the hillside, still in the woodland. This section had the deepest mud, which resulted in going over the bars if ridden (I tried by the way). After a quick woodland path and one more steep, slippy corner the course emerged from the trees onto the grassland. Following a short grassy drag and the finish line was in sight, which marked the end of the lap. Time to warm up and make my way to the start line.



I got a reasonable start and was up in the top 5 going into the first section of corners. Before entering the woodland I was up in third and decided to make one final move to get into second before the run up- it didn't end well. The course narrowed as it entered the woodland, and both me and second place tried to pass through the fenced narrow section at once. This resulted in a large bottle neck and my chain coming off. I got my bike working as quickly as I possibly could, but it made me slip back around 5 places and I was only just inside of the top 10. Thankfully, my anger and annoyance gave me a surge of adrenaline and I set straight to work picking back the places. I took full use of my running strength and was back up in third by the top of the climb. I was barely conscious and I was certainly in oxygen debt now, but it was downhill from there, I could recover. A few mistakes were made on the descent; my efforts had obviously taken their toll. But when back on flat land and out into the open again, I put on the pressure and moved up into second, setting my eyes on first place.

Lap after lap, I could see I was advancing on Tom Seaman, the current leader. A few seconds were gained here and there for about 3 laps, that was until I made the junction with him. Here the race became man against man and survival of the fittest (and most technically competent). From here until the end of the race, both me and Tom made numerous mistakes and attempts to break from each other, but going into the final lap, we were still together. At this point, I was suffering; having to make those efforts early on to regain contention had really hit me, plus I'm sure the two nights out previous to the race, celebrating my birthday, did not help! We entered the woods together, with Tom leading, but that was the last I saw of him. Ascending the run up, I realised I had nothing more to give and couldn't keep on the back foot of Tom. I continued to push hard, but Tom had a clean ride to the finish and, in the end, took the win.

I was pretty pleased with my result; I could feel the results of the training I had put in and bearing in mind my birthday antics, it was a better placing than I was expecting. Anyway, onto the next and final race of the month.

Beverley was host for the penultimate round of the Yorkshire points cyclocross league; it was a new course and was a pretty good one, also. It had a mixture of short sharp climbs, longs drags and tight off camber corner, plus a bunny-hoppable set of hurdles (well at least for some). It had most things you'd expect from a cross course, which was pretty good for a new venue. All I needed to do was tear it up and have a good race!



My start wasn't great; I missed my pedal and I was sat in about 7th come the first corner. But I didn't fret and kept calm. For the first lap I picked off the places, with no over the top efforts and I soon found myself right up in the top three. Paul Cox was leading at this point, but was a long way ahead of the field. The fight for second place was very heated though. A group of about three or four, including me, stayed together for the first lap; each of us were testing the water and trying to splinter the group, but the elastic did not snap. However, coming into the hurdles on the second lap, Bruce Dalton came down, bringing me with him. I managed to get back up and ride away quickly, but Bruce lost quite a bit of time and our small group had splintered. After digging deep, I managed to get onto the wheel of Ben Cooper, and we stayed as a pair for most of the third lap. But that was when disaster struck, about two thirds around the third lap I came down hard, washing out on one of the hairpin bends. Running up the following bank, I heard a load metallic noise coming from my bike- my rear wheel was not spinning properly. I quickly mounted the bike on my shoulder and set off for the pits. At the time I did not know what the problem was; I assumed a broken spoke or something similar. I found out later that I had landed on my rear mech and it had bent into my wheel. For the rest of the race I was on my spare bike, which wasn't too much of an issue, except for the time lost running to the pits to swap for it. With the crash, I had lost about 15 places, which I would have usually made up the majority of. But the crash had also affected my back, which was now hurt a lot. I ploughed on, keeping in roughly the same position. Lap after lap, I considered pulling out, but something in my head hated the idea of a DNF and I managed to complete the race, finishing in 16th position.



So there we are, a month of racing with only one good result to take from it; on the surface, very annoying, but experience was gained and glimpses of some form were there. I would like to thank my taxi driver and pit monkey, my dad, for helping me in November and also to cxmagazine.com for their kit and support. Here's a link to their website (http://www.cxmagazine.com) if you want to check them out. They have all the latest kit reviews, training tips and cyclocross news. If you like what you see you can subscribe to their quarterly magazine, which has even more news, reviews and info to satisfy your cyclocross appetite.

In November, the team acquired another sponsor, which is Silicone Tidds. They create small rubber stops to replace unused bolts on your frame, which look good and save weight at the same time. If your interested, head to http://www.siliconetidds.com.

My next race is the North of England Championships, this coming weekend in York. I'm looking forward to see if I can have a trouble free race this time! Until then, happy riding.