Sadly there was no local (Eastern Cross) race this last weekend, but the Central Cyclocross League had an event on Saturday at the Milton Keynes Bowl, this time hosted by Equipe Velo, a North Buckinghamshire Club. The last event held in the ‘Bowl’ hosted by Velo Bants, made use of a very steep bank which most ran up and a twisting downhill, single track descent. Saturdays track was the opposite of this and made more use of the gradients of the ‘Bowl’ itself. Making the trip over to Buckinghamshire to race on Saturday were Megan Free, Tony Read and Pete Golding.
Megan had another good race on her upward trajectory and was all smiles afterwards, despite having a ‘lay down’ during the event in one of the single track rooty sections, which became more treacherous as subsequent races past over them. Megan reported that she had made the right tyre choice, aided by Kieran Jarvis who had won the Senior Men’s race earlier, therefore she was delighted to finish 10th overall and 6th Senior Lady in a very competitive race.
Tony Read and Peter Golding lined up for the last event of the day, the combined V50/60 race. As is normal in the Central League, there is no preferred gridding for non-league members, whereas in our own league, racers can be allocated a favoured grid position using their National Ranking. So it was that Tony and Pete along with ‘Wheelers’ friend Rob Smith (SDCC) were gridded at the rear of the field on rows 7&9 ! The significance of this becomes clear at the first 180° slippery corner and the subsequent corners, in the mad dash to the uphill, slippery, rooty, single track. Where a ‘bike jam’ was created, from riders being 3 or 4 abreast on the grass, to just room for one at the entrance to the woods, when this happens, patience is a virtue as the front of the race had a clear run and were gone ! This is also reflected in the lap times, where those lapping at the same speed after the first circuit, were separated by over a minute on the first. Tony’s first lap was 3 minutes slower than the leaders, yet only 2 minutes in subsequent laps, which really illustrates the importance of a good grid position and a fast start.
However the ‘Bowl’ is a great venue despite the single track, with plenty of opportunity to practice high speed off camber descents, 180 turns on slippery mud, long draggy ascents and a very steep descent, where good braking at the bottom was essential, oh and do I mention the roots ! By the finish Pete had got up to 24th overall and 5th V60, Tony is really finding his feet at cross and improves race after race and is lapping consistently, 3 of his split times on Saturday were within a second of each other, he was really pleased with 13th V60, one place behind Rob Smith, despite having a ‘lay down’ on lap 3, which bent his shifter and cost about 15 seconds.
Next weekend is a double race weekend for some, the Eastern League event is at the Redbridge Cycle Centre on Saturday, then on Sunday, there is a choice of the Leicestershire League race at Marston, near Market Harborough or, the Central League event, the ‘Zoo Cross’ at Whipsnade ! (Editor’s note: or return to Redbridge on Sunday to ride the same course in the London League !)
See you somewhere !