Muddy hell! National Cyclocross Trophy round 5, Bradford. Dec 11

Senecio [Daniel D]

This race report comes from the perspective of being in the pit. In cyclocross bikes can get damaged (usually no more than a puncture or misaligned handlebars) or clogged in mud; to minimise the chaos a pit area is designated. This is where the support crew is stationed with spare wheels and spare bikes. The more sophisticated rider has a back up team of at least two to collect the mud laden bike from the rider and rush it to the portable jet wash for a swift dowsing. This can be repeated as often as each lap.

On Sunday the water bowser was soon emptied and so an ‘arms race’ for water soon developed.

It was muddy; so much so simply standing was a problem, let alone riding a bicycle!

You will be pleased to know our intrepid CCA riders (+ Luke Morgan) were supported by Stewart and me. We didn’t have access to a jet wash but did have a bucket half filled with murky water and a washing up brush. Needless to say neither of which could have any effect on the bikes we had lovingly prepared for our lads to ride.

Here is link to a shot of Theo climbing one of the inclines; I assure you the mud on the bike weighs more than the bike! XXX

Here is Cameron, not looking his cheery self XXX

The full race report is here LINK

Make sure you watch the videos!

Theo came in 20th and Cameron 28th. Both crashed at some point, but I’ll let them tell their stories. Well done lads, tough racing.

Daniel

Cardinal

I can vouch for the mud !!!!.. For those that know me I started to look and feel even more like Shrek !! Looking forward to the lads report.

geoffg

pictures of Cardinal Shrek Pleeeeeease......great effort lads..serious mud on those videos

tduckett

Thats more like it , none of this namby pamby dry, grass road race stuff. Thats why all the riders from oop north are hard as nails!

Great pics, well done lads

PhilA

Yuk! Mud glorious mud.....Why oh why? Well done you crazy guys.....

Theo-saurus

To call it a cyclocross race is a bit of an understatment, it was more close to bog snorkeling with out the snokel.
The course was pretty tough already let alone with all the mud. It stated on a flat tarmac straight, this turned onto the mud and past the pits on another straight. past this the course turned into a righthand camber but turning left only once did i manage to pedal this without unclipping a foot. Just after this it turned into youtube hill (so called due to the 2010 video of this hill got loads of hits on youtube because its a long montage of people falling down a hill) the hill a steep righthander that turned into a left corner at the end. people had lots of techniques for this one: runing down, one leg out, pedaling down or just falling. my method was one leg but i often had to almost stop so as not to loose control. the hurdles were up a hill so you had to run a while before jumping back on. a couple of muddy twists later the course went back up to the top of the hill on a slippery run up. on the top of the park the course snaked round through the mud before coming back down the hill through baths of mud. a run up to long to cycle and to muddy to run, stood next. it was a long hill but it turned left downwards then straight right up the steepest run up of them all then onto the finishing straight.
i had an alright start dispite missing the unusaly early griding. however i fell down in the mud soon on i had to remove then replace my rear wheel which put me at the back. i managed to crawl through the mud to 20th making up most of time on the run ups. when cycling through the mud your handleing skill decrease due to the exta weight on the bike and you notice it on the hills. sometimes you just have to let the mud steer you and go with it.
this was the first time i have cycled in mud and the hardest cross race i have ever done. still allthough increadably hard it was also very fun.

geoffg

"you just have to let the mud steer you "...........just love this phrase Theo..........awesome and well done all of you

Jon.c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rT0kNL-wV0I#!

Jon.c

here's a taster of how muddy it is and at 2:50 the youth race is shown