Broome Heath CX

tduckett

Looks like we won the round jointly with Welwyn and are back up to second place!!
Reports and photos pls.

Stuart F

Just thinking about doing that.

Its a long haul to Broome Heath but worth the drive. The day turned out to be fine mostly for the early races but there was some light rain during the senior race. Much better than the freezing conditions of last year. Made the making of the CCAness video a bit tricky though.

The course was essentially the same but had the addition of 3 more sandy sectiions which sapped the energy. The better riders could cycle 2 of them (one steep up section) but i saw plenty of people come to grief trying so figured running them would be best.

We are only 2 points ahead of LV in the team points and that was on the strenght of Theo Jackie and Mark L.

Results

Senior
Theo D 6th (1st Junior)
John Polak 14th (4th E Vet)
Danield Doncaster 49th

Vets/Women
Stuart Field 17th
Mark Wyer 20th
Jackie Field 33rd (2nd Women 1st Lady vet)
John Cooke 39th

Youth
Oliver Woolsey 15th
Noah Field 18th

U12
Adam Lightfoot 5th
Harley Pell 11th
Freddie cooke 13th
Archie Foulkes 14th
Felix Field 21st

U10
Mark Lightfoot 2nd (by only 2 seconds)

Senecio [Daniel D]

Broome Heath is one of my favourite courses. This year certain changes were made which, I am pleased to say, improved the course. It was also much harder. Instead of the sharp first climb there was a massive sand trap which was easy to get lost in an crucial to learn the right way through (thanks for the tips Mark). Then the impossible peat climb was replaced by a steep sand bank (still impossible to climb). The normal sandbank remained and then, late in the course, came a Devil's elbow. Short sharp, and in my view, impossible climb to a u turn and then down through another sand trap. Like I say, much harder.

I'd not seen anyone ride the Devil's elbow so was very surprised to see Theo charge past me as I staggered up. In fact many people rode this feature including the 3rd place EVet John Polak.

Good results elsewhere, see above.

Together with the Fields I have some video footage (thanks to Shelton and Stewart for filming when I couldn't). I'll post this somehow, sometime!

Many thanks to Shelton for lending me a tenner! (Will you be at Chris Cross?)

Stuart F

Daniel that steep peat climb to left is the only one I did in practise because it was so busy with people trying. I never made it to the top once. Nearly but not quite.

The right line on the sand was ridden many time by the leaders and Theo in your race and they made good ground over people who had to dismount.

Senecio [Daniel D]

My son took the Theo-line! This was up the left hand peat climb, I have this on video!

Vam Polecat

I rode the right hand sand line on Devil's elbow, I found it more reliable, as the left hand had a tricky tree root right at the point where you did not need it. I was able to ride this 8 times out of nine attempts during the race, the one time I failed I had my gearing all wrong.

Thanks for the bigging up Daniel, I was in fact 4th in the EV competition, beaten in a sprint by Greg Andrews, with whom I had a race long battle, changing position many times. He got the better of me by taking a far more aggressive (and risky) line through the final sand trap to build up a decisive lead-in to the final straight. Svenness points to Colchester Rovers.

Excellent course, and some great racing. Finally the cross gods smiled on us with some rain

mwyer

The sand obviously suited Stuart, he had his best ever ride.

I thought it was a cracking course too. A bit more old school with plenty of running sections. Well done to Theo who could ride both routes up the devil's elbow having practised them both before the race. It meant he could vary depending on riders being in the way on the right hand route.

One senior rider came down heavily on the Devil's Elbow descent sand trap and might have broken his collarbone.

Let the organiser know you thought it was a great course as I heard there were a couple of riders who didn't like it.

Mark.

mattss

Any pics I can send to papers?

Senecio [Daniel D]

Matt,
Sorry I don't have any still shots.
Daniel

Stuart F

Hi Matt

Sorry we don't either. Had 2 cameras but were used for the CCAness video.

Stuart

Senecio [Daniel D]

There are an excellent series of videos on this site CXHAIRS, called Svenness.

I've put up a video on Youtube of the Broome Heath CX race featuring some CCA riders (and some from Lee Valley). It's called CCAness 1.0 and can be found here

Daniel

tduckett

Thanks Daniel, i will pass on my thanks to Anthony when i see him too. Really good that!

Vam Polecat

Great vid Daniel. Only just found some time to watch it. Bloody Christmas time eh.