Grafham cyclo cross

tduckett

Folks, just a reminder that its the Grafham water cyclo cross tomorrow at Malow car park on the north shore. There will be plenty of CCA there.

Racing starts at 11 but there is an under 12's race at 12 o'clock which is ideal for any lit' luns who maybe haven't done one before. Entry is only £1. get there for 11 to sign on and guarantee a place. Mountain bikes or Isla bike is fine.

The rain should have cleared by then as well.

Cycling Weakly

Absolutely. It's an idyllic setting, and last year's races were excellent. The Under 12s course was very straightforward last year - and, don't worry, U12s certainly don't need to tackle the beaches!

These are a few snaps from last year:-

Cycling Weakly

A great course, classic cyclocross weather, and packed fields in every race (280 riders in total!) made it a great day out at Grafham today. Plenty of CC Ashwell representation across all ages. I'll leave it to those who raced to give reports, but here are some photos of the veterans/women's race and the U12 race.

Senecio [Daniel D]

Muddy hell, that was a tough day! I have to say I had quite a good start; that is to say when I fell off half way around the first lap maybe a dozen people passed me. Maybe I crashed because my tyre came off or maybe the crash caused it to part from the rim. Either way I needed to get to the pits. Once there I learnt Theo had crashed and had taken his spare bike. I realised I could combine the wreckage of both machines to form a spare. In in lieu of the passing time and the pain of my crash damaged knee I elected to set up the new spare bike for Theo and ‘graciously’ retire (well at least as graciously as I could covered in mud).

I am glad I did because when Theo did change bikes 40 minutes or so later the ridden one weighed more than double with all the accumulated mud and grass. Theo had not had a great start and lost more time with his crash, so was not having his best day. Still he finished 13th overall and 2nd in the Juniors to Sean Dunlea.

Jon (Chapman), despite the conditions, seemed to be enjoying himself. Unfortunately for him he didn’t have a spare bike. He did stop and the two of us frantically pulled handfuls of mud and grass off and out of his bike. He came in 42nd out of a starting field of 90! (76 finishers).
It did take a while to clean down the bikes when I got home and I was up until midnight bending straight, exchanging and adjusting parts to get two functioning bikes for Theo to ride in today’s (Sunday) Inter Regional Championship in Milton Keynes. (I can only imagine the ground conditions will be similar to Grafham).

Daniel

tduckett

Muddy indeed, a flatish course but with several energy sapping drags in deep mud, a couple of sandy beaches to negotiate and a stream filled ditch which brought down half of those who tried to ride it on the first lap in the vets race!

I was very pleased to pay a pound to the bloke with the pressure washer afterwards!

The vets race was, Mark Wyer 23rd, Stuart Field 26th, Tim D 34th and Andrew Robertson was in there somewhere but isnt in the result for some reason,

Ladies was , Jackie Field 8th and Anna Fraser 16th

youth was , Noah Field 32nd, Oliver Woolsey 35th.

Under 12s, Adam Lightfoot 8th, James Fraser 12th, Helena Dyce 16th, Daniel Green 38th, Mark Lightfoot 40th, Felix Field 44th, Alfie Duckett 47th, Ethan Green 51st, Archie Bracewell 52nd

Hope i havent missed anyone, oh yes and Daniel Maynard was a very impressive 4th in the youth.

It was also great to see so many blue shirts in the under 12s who all had to negotiate the ditch and were all brilliant especially those who were doing it for the first time.

Well done team!

Jon.c

i finished 4th junior, such a fun course, those who didn't race really missed out! Even sliding across the mud was enjoyable. My bike must have weighed more than me at the end!.

Jon.c

to be clear these are 'white' shoes and a grey bike

Richard M.

As promised, here's one of Mark taken by Dan



Richard

Jon.c

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Cycling Weakly

A great shot by renowned pro photographer Geoff Waugh from his amazing Grafham gallery.

Jane

what a stunning shot!

Jon.c

yeah i saw that!

Cycling Weakly

Another good one - Mark W cleaning his bike mid-race...

Cycling Weakly

jackie Field

The Young ones



















Most of my comments would be the same as others about the race. Good muddy fun with hours of cleaning after. (4 very heavy bikes)

If anyone wants high res of these let me know Stuart

tduckett

Thanks for all the pictures Mark and Stuart, some real crackers!