The second race of the season was hosted by Cycling Club Hackney at the Lambourne End Centre, which is a place for Outdoor Learning that focuses in particular, on developing Young People by utilising adventure, farm and environmental activities. As the centre is also a working farm, they make their own sausages and burgers (even Vegan) which is something most look forward to after their races a Bap with a Hot Drink. This is the second year that the Eastern Cross League have visited the facility and CC Hackney did not disappoint us, as they had improved the track from last year, by adding a very fast descent in a rutted field with the inevitable climb back to the top. Despite the heavy rains of late, the track was in great condition, the damp surface in places making the racers consider lines and tyre choices for fast off camber corners and one in particular in the wood section, a 100° right turn after a narrow bridge, where the plastic matting had come to the surface and added to the excitement and unpredictability of grip !
So to the racing, the track was the same for all Senior events, an uphill start, similar to our own course at West Stow, but then into a series of 180° turns, some much tighter than others, before entering the woods for the first time and a fast single track descent, through tight twists and turns, before exiting onto the start field and an off camber turn into a rutted drop, which meant holding on to your bars a little tighter, for fear of losing your grip. Then a ‘fast’ 200m climb on gravel or grass, the choice was yours, before turning tightly left through a gate into the new field and a very fast descent to a very rutted long off-camber corner, which then took us snaking back to the top of the hill, through the farmyard and onto the top field. This is where the pits were located, and on the first pass led to a track which took us to the afore mentioned bridge and tricky corner, once that was negotiated, fast gravel led us back to the pits field, where we wound around some trick slippy corners, before exiting onto the lower field, where a fast 100m descent led to a 180° turn and a 75m ascent back up hill past the finish line, phew !
The Wheelers first involvement was in the Masters 50 category Stephen Brook, Simon Christie, Karl Hale and Matt Shingleton were on the starting Grid. Simon got a great start, which was essential to avoid the inevitable hold ups at the first tight corners and single track in the woods, as 57 competitors all tried to do the same, Stephen also got a good start as did Karl, Matt not so much, but all safely onto the first lap without any drama ! They all rode better than last week, improving their finishing positions, Matt in particular making great progress in only his second race for a couple of years. At the finish, Simon was 14th, Stephen 22nd after a race long battle with Stephen King, Matt came next in 25th having been 42nd at the end of the first lap and finally Karl was 41st and a little disappointed, but in his defence he’d had a hard training week.
Simon leading the way on lap 1 
Stephen looking for Steve 
Karl focussed 
Matt on the charge 
Simon showing how to turn in tight 
Stephen found and past Steve 
Karl focussed on the rutted descent to come 
Matt fighting his way through the field 
Peter chasing the M40’s 
Martin Archer happy that his seat post stayed up !
The Master 60’s were away next, at the start were Martin Archer (2nd Claim), Peter Golding, Tony Read, Nick Rush and Tony Whale. Peter got away much better this week and was along side Nick at the first corner with Martin not far behind, then came Tony Whale, where was Tony Read ? He’d missed clipping in and was left floundering at the back. The Commissaire had given the Masters 40 field a 1 minute 43 second start (don’t ask) ahead of the 60’s to avoid the quicker 60’s riders catching the slower 40’s too early. There were two real breakthrough’s in the race Martin Archer made his first ever podium in 4th and Tony Read after his very slow start and being dead last, got all the way through to 7th, his best ever position, Peter was 3rd, Nick who was a little under the weather 13th and Tony Whale a super 15th in only his second race in a very long time.
There were two Ladies were once again represented by Megan Free and Teresa Rush and I must mention Sophie Lee of Ely & District, who was encouraged to enter her first CX race having attended one of the ‘Wheelers’ Tuesday night training session, Chapeau to her. Our Ladies were awesome, Megan racing in her second event of the weekend, having won her category at the Velo Bants event at the Milton Keynes Bowl the day before, was very combative during the last lap in particular and held of her adversaries for 13th overall, Teresa made a much better start than at Springfield which was really encouraging to see, she rode smoothly for the whole race to finish 19th and win her category again, we think we can call her a confirmed CX racer now. What a start to the season.
The Wheelers Cross team are making a real impact in all of our categories and once again our fantastic support team make the most noise of any club, so a big thank you to Sara Hale and Gill Read and ‘Hugo’ of course for all their encouragement, plus the support of our fellow racers when they were not racing, a great day out, the Sausage Baps were excellent and the rain held off for most of the event, hoorah.
Next weekend we head to the Colchester Northern Gateway on Saturday for the Neil Pears Memorial Cross, hosted by Colchester Rovers, it maybe a flat venue, but they put together a tough track, we’re all looking forward to that !