Lovelo Crossmas

Senecio [Daniel D]

The Lovelo Crossmas always set the bar high for itself. It boasted a bridge for a start and Belgian fries. The course was in the grounds of a school and the lap was long and technical. It featured a scaffold bridge, a row of little climbs, plenty cornery course and a long jump pit. The weather gave the rest; mud, mud, mud and a snow bank (all the snow cleared from the pathways was dumped in one place for us to negotiate).

It was very, very cold when I arrived at 11:00 and only very cold when I left at 16:00. My sighting lap loaded my bike with so much mud I was concerned I could even manage a whole lap without changing. However between 11:00 and 14:15 the rains came and this thinned the mud.

CCA were getting into the Christmas spirit and so all entered the Open race with Dave Hadsley as Santa Claus and a troupe of elves, namely Daniel, Richard, Dan, Peter and Nick. I have to say it was great as many people got behind the venture and cheered on the elves with great gusto, cheering us up the the bridge and, I understand, handing up a beer to Elf Hall on the last lap.

Did anyone else go over the bars in the sand pit?

I did change my bike several times and this was only possible due to an excellent and efficient pit crew. Totally on it and faultless. Thank you to Joe Hadsley and Sam and William Daniels. Top team.

It is now 20:30 and I reckon I am just about warmed through.

Great race, great racing and a great day.

geoffg

You are all completely bonkers and I just love reading your mad capers. Great racing and camaraderie is obvious from the many reports. Seasons greetings from Durham and a happy new years mud to you all.

dhadsley

The sand pit was definitely getting more treacherous as the race went on. The central rut that I was riding was getting deeper and deeper, exposing some timber or concrete at the far end. It nearly caught me out on the final lap but just managed to get my foot down before an OTB.

Great course as Daniel said, enhanced by the mud. Some sections were mud before we started due to recent building works and by the end they were ankle deep. Lots of running, the row of little climbs that were rideable earlier on turned in to a lengthy run, as did the snow pile, followed by ankle deep mud. I used these to my advantage to get past Pete who had his usual great start and managed to stay ahead of me for a couple of laps, excelling in the twisty, slippery corners.

Good to get an hour in before next weeks champs, my lap times were all very consistent up until 40 minutes then fell off a cliff. Great support from around the course, being in a Santa costume. Makes me want to wear it every week!

Pit crew did a great job, I felt sorry for Joe. I'd cajoled him to stand out in the rain with my bike for an hour then didn't actually change bikes.

RichardL

Great course, great mud, great support.
In the race I was getting time checks from the people in the tent before the bridge referring to Daniel as Elf 3 & me Elf 4 so I always knew where I was - last

dhadsley

The people in the tent are these guys

https://velobants.wordpress.com/

They set up camp at every Central race, offering support, beer hand ups, air horns, high fives. This is very common at cross in America. Not everyone's cup of tea I guess but you can't fault their enthusiasm for cross.

I was having a race with another santa, and was getting much encouragement to catch him, when I got ahead of him for one lap, I was declared the real santa, the real beard obviously the deciding factor.