London X League 2012, Round 1 - Fowlmead, 16/09/12

[citoyen]

I'm finally going to enter my first ever CX race - this weekend at Fowlmead, nr Deal in Kent. Wish me luck!

http://www.londonxleague.co.uk/news/

Anyone else up for it?

d.

[bobb]

Wish me luck!

Good luck!

[Palinurus]

Good luck.

'cross is great.

You'll sleep well after.

First race for me this season might be Hillingdon (Central league), I say might because I've neglected to do any training.

[Palinurus]

Don't forget the race report.

[JJ]

Good luck D. Looking forward to hearing about it. What bike are you using?

[citoyen]

Cheers. I'll post a race report in due course. Hopefully with pictures - the cheerleaders are coming along to watch. I'll be riding my Felt Breed singlespeed - and will probably get marked down as a bit of a "character" for turning up without gears.

d.

[citoyen]

At the start, signed on, done a couple of test laps... Slightly terrified by some of the technical bits... Awesome amounts of fun though!

Race starts at 2. Itching to get going now!

Going to watch the juniors first though.

d.

[citoyen]

Flipping heck, that was hard work... but soooooo much fun!

The mass start was mental. Everyone jostling for position, and the ground so dry, clouds of dust were billowing up so you couldn't see a thing. Actually had to get off and carry my bike up the first steep ramp just because the course was too busy to ride it, but it soon thinned out and I settled into a steady rhythm.

I got more and more confident with the technical bits as the race went on - dropping down those scary-steep banks at speed is such a thrill! It got really hard work towards the end as I tired but I was still riding up bits where plenty of others were getting off, so I'm well pleased with that. Managed to stay on my bike for the whole race too - a couple of near misses but no falls or collisions, and no mechanicals either.

The wind became a factor late on - parts of the course are quite exposed and there was a stiff headwind in places. I kept going at a decent pace for about 50 minutes but faded badly towards the end.

Didn't get lapped until nearly 45 minutes into the race though, and only about a dozen or so of the really fast boys lapped me (and most of those in the last half of the last lap when I was really crawling), so I'm dead chuffed. Can't wait to see the results to see how I actually did. Think I managed six laps, might have been seven. Not sure - I lost count by the end. I was praying for the bell by the end, but I actually missed it and got the chequered flag instead. I might have pushed on a bit harder on my final lap if I'd realised it was my final lap.

Lots of people taking pics around the course so hopefully they will appear online somewhere soon, along with the full results.

I'm home, showered and fed now but still buzzing. I will sleep well tonight.

Definitely doing that again.

d.

[citoyen]

Results are in...

http://ukcyclesport.com/201112-uk/6630-mosquito-london-and-south-east-cross-league-1-2012-13

I came 46th out of 90. Pretty darn pleased with that for a first time out! I reckon I can't have been lapped by more than the top 12 at most because I know the rider who finished 13th and I don't recall him passing me. There was a flurry of fast riders overtaking me towards the finish, but I guess they weren't all lapping me.

Amazingly, I managed to avoid being in any of the pictures on the gallery page. 

d.

[marcusjb]

Well done!

I have never ridden cross (it's there on the to do list), but it always looks amazing.

Good work though

[citoyen]

Cheers! I definitely recommend giving it a go. Totally love it.

d.

[JJ]

Well done indeed!  How much specific training did you do for it?  Did you spend time learning to mount/dismount/run with the bike, or did you just turn up and do it?

[citoyen]

Training? What's that? 

The only practising of mounting/dismounting I did was on my warm-up laps before the race. Fortunately, there were only two places on the circuit where it was necessary - I managed to ride up all the other bits.

At one point on the circuit, you descend a short slope with a sharp left at the bottom leading into a flight of steps to climb. Saw a spectacular fall when a chap in front of me turned his front wheel too sharply at the bottom of the slope, while dismounting for the steps, and went A over T. I managed to avoid making any mistakes of that nature.

My biggest problem was getting a feel for the very different grip dynamics of offroad tyres - I'm a roadie, really not what you'd call experienced at offroad cycling (well, not since I was a teen and used to ride my BMX round the local woods). Trying to find the right tyre pressure to get the best grip while avoiding the risk of pinch flats was a bit of a quandary. I had the tyres pumped up way too hard at first, so it's just as well I had time for those practice laps. I've been round the Fowlmead MTB circuit before, but it's always been wet and muddy on previous occasions and grip is very different on dry, dusty trails with lots of loose gravel.

After seven laps of hard racing, my feel for how well my tyres grip is infinitely improved. Still needs some work though...

d.

[citoyen]

I should add that from what I've heard, the Fowlmead race is a very good introduction to Cross for novices since it's not nearly as technical and/or lumpy as some courses are reputed to be. The Herne Hill course is supposed to be a very tough one. I'm hoping to enter the race there in October, so I guess I'll soon find out!

d.

[JJ]

Blimey! That sounds like a habit forming.

So what's the format?  Is it a fixed time, or is it n laps with everyone stopping when the leaders have?  And how long did the torture go on?

Bet you're sore today though 

JJ

[citoyen]

It's a one hour race. They start ringing the bell for the final lap when the leaders go through just before the hour is up. When the leaders finish, it's the chequered flag for everyone.

I didn't hear the bell because I hadn't been lapped by the time I started what turned out to be my final lap (I thought I'd been lapped on lap 5, but I guess the fast chap who overtook me then was actually catching up after a mechanical). I was caught by the leaders towards the end of lap 7 (their lap 8 ), so when they got the chequered flag, that was the end of the race for me too. Had I been able to sustain my pace for a few minutes longer, I'd have had to do another lap!

The tail end of the field only did 4 laps. I'd have felt like I hadn't got my money's worth if I'd only managed 4 laps! 

Tbh, I should probably be feeling more sore than I am today - I tend to slow down when I get tired, need to work on that pushing through the pain barrier thing. Very tired though.

d.

[Palinurus]

I should add that from what I've heard, the Fowlmead race is a very good introduction to Cross for novices since it's not nearly as technical and/or lumpy as some courses are reputed to be. The Herne Hill course is supposed to be a very tough one.

Quite a bit of singletrack at Herne Hill on the outside of the track with a few run-ups depending on which way they run the course (it varies). There's usually some sand but it's not deep enough to be a problem, just light on the bars and ride quick. Relatively technical and narrow making overtaking tricky. Rollapaluza have been making new features there since I last rode it though.

Once I rode a course that was made on totally flat grass- barely an undulation to be seen, maybe one or two tree roots. It was still really hard!.

[citoyen]

Here's a video of last week's race - I managed to spot myself once, second to last in the group that goes through around the 8min mark (I'm in full shot on 8:08). Gives quite a good flavour of what the race was like, although those banks felt steeper in real life than they look on film:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/kFm2IwA1FnE&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/kFm2IwA1FnE&rel=1</a>

More here:
http://ukcyclesport.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6646:mosquito-london-se-cross-1-2012-13-video&catid=98&Itemid=242

Unfortunately, I couldn't do this weekend's race and definitely won't be able to do the next two either. It's a bit frustrating!

d.