This week the northeastern component of Cross Club has mostly (entirely) been racing in Middlesbrough. The Geordie / Smoggy rivalry was about to reach fever pitch in an NHS carpark in Eston Hills, Middlesbrough. Who cares about football, we were riding round 5 of the NECCL!
With the van loaded with bikes Paul, Rob and I head to Eston Hills to meet Rich and his long suffering girlfriend Shonah. We arrived in plenty of time to get all the bikes set up, sign on, have a few practice laps, get some caffeine filled shotblocs down our necks and complete the obligatory 5 pre-race trips to the toilet!
In fact, we had so much time Rich decided to do a bit of pre-race bike fettling. We all know this is a bad idea before a race but with spare time on our hands Rich found it too hard to resist. After oiling his chain nearly resulted in a lost finger we decided to go and find the start line! (finger was treated with oily rag and electrical tape).
Previously I have made the mistake of starting too far towards the back, this time I made sure I had a prime position one row back from the front. In the end the start turned out to be pretty wide and one row back from the front was also the last row of the grid!
The start line
The course was interesting with a nice set of barriers, woodland singletrack, some grassy slogs and some very wet mud. There were a few slippy corners and I was glad that the night before the race I swapped my Vittoria tyres for Challenge Grifo's. The difference was incredible, massive amounts more grip and I didn't really notice any difference in the rolling resistance, this could have been because everything was caked in grass and mud within a couple of laps.
Rich enjoying (as much as is possible in a 'cross race) the singletrack
I am still getting used to 'cross racing but I felt good and the course was fun and suited me. Pushing hard, I was keeping up with guys that had been distant figures in the last couple of races. After a couple of laps I has settled into a good pace with a rider from M Steels and a rider from Blackhawk bikes, it was hurting but it felt good!
Team mate Rob was having another mechanical nightmare. After last weeks smashed rear derailleur, a snapped chain 50 yards from the house on Saturdays training ride, race day brought him a nice front puncture and a retirement. We need to get some spare CrossClub wheels!!
Rob (number 20) approaching the barriers
As I approached the barriers for maybe the fourth or fifth time my chain got stuck behind my cassette. I tried to pull the chain out but it was jammed solid. At this point Shonah ran over and offered a helping hand, while she held the bike I pulled the chain with both hands and managed to free it. This all took the best part of a lap with both Paul and Rich who were already close to lapping me coming passed at least once and probably the best part of twice! With some encouragement from Shonah probably along the lines of "smash it" I went out to finish the race. I had lost a lap but I had also lapped a couple of people so I wasnt going to be last! Anyway, racing is better than the turbo!
Paul clearing the first barrier
A couple more laps and I heard the bell, after rejoining the race I managed to catch up with the M Steels rider I had been with earlier, obviously I was a lap down but he didn't seem to realise. As we went for the line I did something rather unsporting and put a decent dig in, with an additional lap in his legs he couldn't follow. It is horrible being beaten on the line, so I made sure I went over and explained I was a lap down straight after the race, well almost straight after.
Me at the finish line
A couple of mechanical but a brilliant race none the less. My favourite course this year and a little bit of sunshine. The results aren't yet out but both Paul and Rich had good races so will hopefully be fairly high in the table.
Big thanks to the organisers, Shonah for her help and encouragement and the NECCL gallery where I borrowed all of the photos.
Oh yeah, when I emailed everyone to ask if they wanted any high or low lights adding the the blog Rich replied with 'Yeah a particular low light for me was the smell of fresh dog eggs near the barriers towards the end of the race' Haha, brilliant!
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