The third race of the Eastern Cyclocross League was organised by Colchester Rovers Cycling Club at the excellent Colchester Sports Park. The park has a dedicated tarmac cycling track which hold events throughout the year, but only on one day of the year is there a Cyclocross event. This year the ‘Rovers’ surpassed themselves, by creating the best course there yet, they have slowly been developing the area and have now been allowed to use more of the grassed area in and around the tarmac track. And for this event they had created a fast, flowing, twisting, turning, spiralling, off-camber, masterpiece. They made the best use of the tarmac for a very fast start, which led to an area where the riders had to negotiate about 10 tight flowing turns, before rushing back towards the start and the first pass of the pits, a 180° turn took the racers out of the fenced part of the circuit and some more fast turns which led to a single hurdle across rutted ground, before a short steep bank and an off-camber turn, another bank and then back towards the finish, but not before a second hurdle, more tight turns and then a wind assisted tarmac section, took them back to the top of the off-camber and 3 more great corners, before finally having the end of a lap in sight, but to get there, they had to negotiate 3 tight uphill turns all followed by off-camber, before getting back onto the tarmac and passing the lap board, phew. But what an amazing circuit it was and I must say that the Wheelers support around the course was, as usual, second to none, big thanks to Paul and Cath Chapman, Stephen and Ross Brook, who made the journey just to support, to Sara Hale and all the Wheelers when not racing who raised the volume and of course Hugo, it was very much appreciated.
So to the racing, first off where the Men’s Master 50’s, sadly Stephen Brook had caught the ‘lurgy’ probably from Sam, so was a non-starter, but Simon Christie, Karl Hale, Iain Milligan and Matt Shingleton all were on the start grid, and woosh they were off at breakneck speed to try to get into the first set of corners in the leading few and 45 racers all trying to do the same thing is quite a sight. The Wheelers all made great starts, Iain in only his first event since last season was trying to find his race pace, having just come back from the Alps. There were some great racing throughout the field and some very close finishes after 5 exciting laps, the race was won by James Ward Cambridge CC who regularly trains at West Stow, who just held of Glenn Davey of Stowmarket. Our first finisher was Simon who is maintaining last years form in 15th, next came Matt who is beginning to find the grove in 27th, Karl had his best race yet to cross the line in 33rd and finally Iain finished 37th, there’s more to come we are sure.
After lunch it was the Oldest racers turn, being launched of the start line 2 minutes after the 40 year olds, it was somewhat disconcerting to realise that the first part of the track took all of those 2 minutes. With really good smooth tarmac the charge to the first corner was epic, but suddenly from the second row Nick Rush was in the lead, but he politely let Paul Watson and Pete Golding pass him, Nick is getting a reputation as a good ‘lead out man’ ! Also on the start line were Martin Archer, Tony Read and Tony Whale, we only need Paul Chapman back to be a septet, Wheelers are certainly the best represented across all the Old Fart categories !
In the race, after about 3 quarters of the first lap, Paul Watson whilst in the lead ‘shipped’ his chain, Dave Copland of Ipswich BC, quickly took advantage, and the untimely mechanical also let Pete through to second. Tony Whale also had a mechanical on the first lap, but unlike Paul who eventually got his chain back on, Tony’s was terminal as he’d broken part of his free hub, jamming his rear wheel and meant him pulling out without a spare bike. Martin wasn’t away as well as last week, Nick eventually settled mid pack after his awesome start and was followed from the second lap by Tony Read, who was having trouble with his vision, so being able to see the Wheelers ‘Fire Engine’ colours in front was a big help on this twisting course. Paul got back past Pete on the 3rd lap to finish 2nd, Pete was 3rd, Martin lost 2 places on the last lap finishing 10th and then came Nick and Tony (oh for better sight next week) in 16th and 17th from the 29 over 60s starters.
In the Women’s event Megan Free and Teresa Rush were on the Grid and joined by our adopted rider Sophie Lee, the racing was fast and furious, Teresa got a great start this week, hanging on to the coat tails of much younger competitors, Sophie got a flyer closely followed by Megan, during the race Sophie gained a couple of places from her grid position, Megan who is doing a lot of racing of late, lost a few places, eventually finishing 13th 2 places behind Sophie in 11th, who has decided she now needs a CX bike rather than her MTB, Teresa keeps on improving her bike handling skills and was terrific on the awkward off-camber twists and turns, she crossed the line in 17th place and first in her age group.
I mentioned Megan is racing a lot lately, on Sunday she journeyed to the London League race at the Iconic Crystal Palace and a course with a big climb every lap, here she finished 12th Senior lady in a big field of 45.
The last race as always was for the Senior and Junior men and our racer was Sam Brook still only 16, he had missed last weeks race due to illness, which had manifested itself during the first race at Springfield, so he had wisely taken 2 weeks off. Here he had a great race long battle with the 3rd placed Senior, holding him off to finish 7th overall and 4th Junior, yes 4 Juniors in the first 8, it’s going to be a great tough season for those lads.
A massive thanks to Colchester Rovers for putting on such a brilliant event, a National Trophy course in the making, with their excellent infrastructure. The next race is Sunday the 28th at Welwyn, a different track to look forward too, all grass but lots of hills. Here’s to another great Wheelers turnout.