Hadley Park CX

tduckett

Todays CX was down at the olympic MTB venue and although we didnt have to descend the rock cliffs it was still very much an MTB race with lots of riders opting for mountain bikes. Some fast descents and lots of steep climbs. I was very glad of a 30 on the back! It got a bit slippy after the rain but the gravelly climbs were surprisingly grippy. Enjoyed it more than i thought i was going to.
Great ride from Travis as i think he punctured on his MTB and changed to CX then had an off somewhere. Emma going great on the MTB too. Also Dan rapidly moving up the ranks and Steve Hill having a great ride in his first season. Pete looking like he was enjoying himself with his MTB pedigree.
Didnt see too much of the youngsters racing but hope everyone got something out of it. Mark W unlucky with a ripped off rear mech...ouch.

result

u10
3 Gethin Hill
11 Dafydd Hill
15 Elijah Storti
18 Logan Ayres
19 Louis Oppen

u12
8 Iestyn Hill
9 Ethan Storti
16 Jo Hadsley
17 Alistair Oppen

youth
2 Adam Lightfoot
9 Felix Field
13 Sam Daniels
24 Nathan Hardy
26 Archie Foulkes
34 Thomas Ayres

vets50+/women
20 Pete Daniels
32 Jackie Field (2 vet women)
33 Stuart Field
43 Andrew Robertson
59 Emma Pell
DNF Mark Wyer

vets 40-49
26 Tim Duckett
28 Iain Foulkes
30 Stephen Hill
31 Dave Hadsley
36 Dan Hall
41 Richard Lawrence

seniors/ juniors
8 Travis Pell
17 Noah Field

Stuart F

Well done to all that raced today. Not sure if it was the best venue for a CX course. I know a lot of people not especially impressed which is a shame as I know how much work goes into setting these up. But when you see U12 and 10's crying on the course and adults handing their numbers back in and not starting something is amiss.

mwyer

I thought it was excellent. I know we don't tend to have very technical courses or hilly ones in the Eastern Region so maybe some riders found it a bit daunting. I think many Yorkshire and NW courses are just as tough and once you get to national level then things really ramp up (or should do). Maybe the U12/U10 course should have been a bit easier.

Brilliant that all our riders coped. My problem was a poorly setup bike rather than an issue on the course. I'm happy to run a training session down there sometime, it's just fitting it in!

r.

Peter D

I went from one extreme to another. when I first rode it in practise it left me feeling scared but once I'd practised it a few times and got into the race, I enjoyed it and it felt good to be pushed a bit technically. Steep hills and fast descents suit me a lot more than slogging round a muddy field.

That said, I really think the younger riders should have a less strenuous route as there is a danger that this could have put the young ones off.

Travis Pell

I really enjoyed this race. A bit like Pete I was worried from practise that it would be a crash fest, but it turned to be quite a fun course. The climbs were definitely hard and for some of the younger ones I can see why it might have put riders off.

There was a lot of debate on facebook as to whether a mtb would have been faster on that course but personally I found the cross bike to be faster as any time gained on the descents by the mtb was lost rapidly on the flat sections and climbs.