(Photo courtesy, Andy Jones)

It appears to be catching on, this cyclo-cross lark, especially with the – shall we say – more mature cyclist.

The record field of well over 500 riders for this year’s national championships in Sutton Coldfield included around 120 veterans on the grid for the 40-49 age group.

Now, 120 riders trying to reach the opening left-hander in pole position is quite likely to lead to some kind of argy-bargy – although vets generally handle their bikes very well and are keener than most to get home without any broken bones. But I was rather expecting the first corner to be the problem, rather than the actual grid.

And so the rider sprawled on the tarmac in front of Neil Simpson of London Phoenix and myself was getting short shrift. We weren’t even over the start line, for pity’s sake, and were already pinned on the barriers watching a 120-man bunch fly by. This fella was scrabbling to get up and get going, his back wheel refusing to co-operate, while Neil and yours truly scrambled all over him, muttering unpleasantries. I feel a bit guilty now, in the cold light of day…actually, no I don’t.

Having started halfway up the field I was now looking at around 80 riders to chase. Oh well, start from scratch, don’t panic and pick ‘em off.

It’s amazing how many people you can overtake simply by riding smartly and not making silly mistakes. What had seemed during warm-up a rather dull course – dry, featureless and lacking any running sections save a couple of planks – was actually pretty challenging. A few sharp little inclines had people struggling. A short section of woodland had riders hitting the brakes and taking poor lines. Those with too much air in their tyres were slipping on grassy corners as the off-camber surface took its toll on the unaware and unsteady.

So without unduly forcing the issue and hammering myself to the point of going into the red I weaved through the field as best I could and spent the whole 40 minutes overtaking, which is, to my mind, always preferable to having people overtake for 40 minutes.
The only downer was finishing third in a three-way sprint for the line but there was literally nothing left in the tank by that point. 40th overall, 12th in the over-45 category. No complaints, but hoping for a tough course next year and a clean getaway from the grid.

While us lesser-knowns were frittering around many minutes adrift, the great – and incredibly nice bloke – Nick Craig was crossing the line with his arms in the air having won in his first year as a veteran.

No great surprise there, but he did turn up again the next day and give the leading men a run for their money in the elite race. Respect to Mr Craig!

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 17:10:03 and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.