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Diss CC Supercross - Redgrave
One of the things you end up doing when you've raced cross for a while, or designed cross courses, is to constantly note how good a particular park, piece of land or anywhere with a bit of grass would make a great cross course. If you happened to be driving through Redgrave in Suffolk, and let's face it why would you, it's in the middle of nowhere, you'd be very unlikely to pass the Activity Centre and utter those words 'that would make a great cross course'
This first impression has fooled many a first timer at Redgrave in to thinking it's going to be both too easy and a bit dull. A lot of credit therefore has to go to the course designers who manage to make a tough and challenging course from very little.
For some reason turnout, both amongst CCA riders and in general was low on Saturday. Illness, work and other annoyances had accounted for most of the youth riders and some of the vets. Dan Hall, Daniel, Richard and I were off on a trip to Koksijde in Belgium to watch the Cyclocross world cup, the race being a perfect opener to the weekend.
I didn't get there in time to see it but Logan was our only rider in the U10s, bagging a 4th boy placing. Likwise I didn't see Conan come in 12th in the U12s. Archie Bracewell again was our only entrant for the youth race, which I did get the chance to watch. Archie was riding nicely, putting the power down when needed and keeping it smooth on the more technical sections. This earned him a fantastic 17th place.
The Vet 50s was up next with Daniel, Vince, Pete and Craig Dyce representing CCA. Vince got off to his usual flyer. I reckoned him in the top ten for the first couple of laps, eventually finishing 17th. Pete was, as always, very good on the technical features at the back of the field. These consist of one moderately sized mound that the aforementioned clever design, sends you over 3 times with varying degrees of difficulty. Pete was about the only rider that I saw who was able to ride all 3 passes of the mound cleanly. This enabled a good battle with Craig Dyce who eventually got the better of Pete, finishing 20th and 22nd respectively. Daniel too had a good race finishing a respectable 30th.
Myself, Dan and Iain lined up for the Vet 40s. Dan only arrived in time for one quick sighting lap due to transport problems, this meant he wasn't able to completely dial in the best lines for the technical sections. We all lined up within 1 row, Iain and Dan had good starts whereas mine was not so good, having pulled my foot out of the pedals. Not panicking I was repeating over in my head, Mark's mantra that 'corners are for overtaking'. Fortunately there are plenty at Redgrave and by this stage they were quite slippery. At each corner I attempted to get passed a rider in front to try and get back on Dan's wheel, sometimes it worked, others the door was closed on me. Eventually I got on to Dan's wheel and decided to sit there for a while whilst recovering from my efforts following the poor start. A St Ives rider joined us to make a triumvirate, battling it out for dominance.
There's a quite legitimate tactic in cross, wherein you deliberately decide to run a tricky section if you know that it may hinder the progress of the rider behind who would prefer to ride it, thereby forcing them to dismount and run too. Now I'm not saying Dan employed this tactic on one particular section, I'd say it was more down to his lack of practise alluded to earlier, but being directly behind him it forced me off my bike whilst opening a 20 yard gap for Dan plus enabling the St Ives rider to also get passed. This toing and froing continued between the 3 of us and these efforts enabled us to catch and pass 2 Lea Valley riders, bringing our little race within a race up to 5. It was a great battle and we all shared stories and handshakes at the end. Perfect. Not so for Iain though who had suffered a broken seatpost and had to DNF. Unlucky, lap times up to that point suggested a very good finish.
We had to leave for our Belgian trip so didn't have chance to see the women's race including Emma and Anna, and Tim in the Seniors
U10
Logan Ayers 4th
U12
Conan 12th
Youth
Archie Bracewell 17th
Vet 50
Vince 17th
Craig 20th
Pete 22nd
Daniel 30th
Vet 40
David 19th
Dan 21st
Iain DNF
Women
Emma 13th (4th Vet 40)
Anna 15th (3rd Vet 50)
Seniors
Tim 40th
The trip to Koksijde for the World Cup was a triumph. This famous course is based around huge sand dunes that seem to us mere mortals impossible to either ride up or down. The pros display a level of skill and sheer astonishing power that makes it look easy. I'd wholly recommend a trip to watch this race. It's really close, less than 50 minutes from the channel tunnel in Calais and only 13 Euros for 4 races. The racing is fast, furious and right there in front of you, and the riders gather around their motorhomes between races and are very generous with their time, stopping to chat even when in the middle of their roller warm ups, whether they be living legends like Katie Compton or plucky young French juniors.
This first impression has fooled many a first timer at Redgrave in to thinking it's going to be both too easy and a bit dull. A lot of credit therefore has to go to the course designers who manage to make a tough and challenging course from very little.
For some reason turnout, both amongst CCA riders and in general was low on Saturday. Illness, work and other annoyances had accounted for most of the youth riders and some of the vets. Dan Hall, Daniel, Richard and I were off on a trip to Koksijde in Belgium to watch the Cyclocross world cup, the race being a perfect opener to the weekend.
I didn't get there in time to see it but Logan was our only rider in the U10s, bagging a 4th boy placing. Likwise I didn't see Conan come in 12th in the U12s. Archie Bracewell again was our only entrant for the youth race, which I did get the chance to watch. Archie was riding nicely, putting the power down when needed and keeping it smooth on the more technical sections. This earned him a fantastic 17th place.
The Vet 50s was up next with Daniel, Vince, Pete and Craig Dyce representing CCA. Vince got off to his usual flyer. I reckoned him in the top ten for the first couple of laps, eventually finishing 17th. Pete was, as always, very good on the technical features at the back of the field. These consist of one moderately sized mound that the aforementioned clever design, sends you over 3 times with varying degrees of difficulty. Pete was about the only rider that I saw who was able to ride all 3 passes of the mound cleanly. This enabled a good battle with Craig Dyce who eventually got the better of Pete, finishing 20th and 22nd respectively. Daniel too had a good race finishing a respectable 30th.
Myself, Dan and Iain lined up for the Vet 40s. Dan only arrived in time for one quick sighting lap due to transport problems, this meant he wasn't able to completely dial in the best lines for the technical sections. We all lined up within 1 row, Iain and Dan had good starts whereas mine was not so good, having pulled my foot out of the pedals. Not panicking I was repeating over in my head, Mark's mantra that 'corners are for overtaking'. Fortunately there are plenty at Redgrave and by this stage they were quite slippery. At each corner I attempted to get passed a rider in front to try and get back on Dan's wheel, sometimes it worked, others the door was closed on me. Eventually I got on to Dan's wheel and decided to sit there for a while whilst recovering from my efforts following the poor start. A St Ives rider joined us to make a triumvirate, battling it out for dominance.
There's a quite legitimate tactic in cross, wherein you deliberately decide to run a tricky section if you know that it may hinder the progress of the rider behind who would prefer to ride it, thereby forcing them to dismount and run too. Now I'm not saying Dan employed this tactic on one particular section, I'd say it was more down to his lack of practise alluded to earlier, but being directly behind him it forced me off my bike whilst opening a 20 yard gap for Dan plus enabling the St Ives rider to also get passed. This toing and froing continued between the 3 of us and these efforts enabled us to catch and pass 2 Lea Valley riders, bringing our little race within a race up to 5. It was a great battle and we all shared stories and handshakes at the end. Perfect. Not so for Iain though who had suffered a broken seatpost and had to DNF. Unlucky, lap times up to that point suggested a very good finish.
We had to leave for our Belgian trip so didn't have chance to see the women's race including Emma and Anna, and Tim in the Seniors
U10
Logan Ayers 4th
U12
Conan 12th
Youth
Archie Bracewell 17th
Vet 50
Vince 17th
Craig 20th
Pete 22nd
Daniel 30th
Vet 40
David 19th
Dan 21st
Iain DNF
Women
Emma 13th (4th Vet 40)
Anna 15th (3rd Vet 50)
Seniors
Tim 40th
The trip to Koksijde for the World Cup was a triumph. This famous course is based around huge sand dunes that seem to us mere mortals impossible to either ride up or down. The pros display a level of skill and sheer astonishing power that makes it look easy. I'd wholly recommend a trip to watch this race. It's really close, less than 50 minutes from the channel tunnel in Calais and only 13 Euros for 4 races. The racing is fast, furious and right there in front of you, and the riders gather around their motorhomes between races and are very generous with their time, stopping to chat even when in the middle of their roller warm ups, whether they be living legends like Katie Compton or plucky young French juniors.
Comments
Emma was unlucky at the end of her race when some confusion between riders and commissaires cost her at least one place.
Anna was very pleased to go home with the third-place V50 prize, a full ten years after her first appearance at Redgrave. We immediately spent the prize money in the new Phoenix Cycleworks cafe on the way home.
Harley was there too to support her mum. She wasn’t able to race but I persuaded her to demo a few skills in the car park.
Mark F
Jackie