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Ambleside Sports Grass Track 26th July
My new club is organising the grass track racing at Ambleside Sports Day on Thursday 26th July.
It is an iconic local event and the cycling forms part of a day of traditional sports like fell running and racing hounds.
There is a healthy prize fund and last year CCA members did rather well.
https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/176076/Ambleside-Sports-Grass-Track-Cycling-2018
I’ll be there helping the organiser with the handicapping this year!
Seriously be good to see a few up north again in 2018.
Not sure if you have a grass track forum for the east Anglia region but would be great if you could spread the word.
It is an iconic local event and the cycling forms part of a day of traditional sports like fell running and racing hounds.
There is a healthy prize fund and last year CCA members did rather well.
https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/176076/Ambleside-Sports-Grass-Track-Cycling-2018
I’ll be there helping the organiser with the handicapping this year!
Seriously be good to see a few up north again in 2018.
Not sure if you have a grass track forum for the east Anglia region but would be great if you could spread the word.
Comments
Definitely a few of us looking to come and race, would love to stay at your caravan again if that's ok, and maybe try and stay night after for a ride on your local lanes Friday?? Would that be ok? Can confirm numbers a little nearer the day.
Jeremy,
Look forwards to catching up!!
I've hired a van, me, adam and travis are coming up in that with dave and jenny in their car. Hoping to arrive with you later in the evening on Wednesday. Race ambleside thurs, come back to you on thurs evening and have a little ride on rd bikes from you on Friday and then head down to a campsite near Heckington where we are all racing on Saturday!!
Excited doesn't even cover it!!!!!
Mitch
All looking good for the next few days - Jenny and I will be leaving straight from work today, so will be with you probably sometime before 9, and the others following soon after in their van...
See you in a bit,
Cheers,
Dave.
https://www.facebook.com/1784529921865733/posts/2108478506137538/
This week saw a continuation of the Ashwell/Contour Alliance to stage a raiding party of ‘The North’, focussing on two of the most lucrative events in the grass track calendar, Ambleside Sports (think of a Lakeland version of the Highland Games set in Cumbria).
Wednesday – after work: Jenny and I travelled up to Geoff’s farm in County Durham, closely followed by Mitchy, Travis and Adam in their hire van. Easy journey these days, 4 hours door-to-door from Stevenage including petrol stop, would be even less if it wasn’t for the endless 40 zone near Huntingdon....
Thursday – Woke to brilliant sunshine over the valley, and travelled the hour and a half or so along the A66 to Ambleside, not seeing a hint of the fabled school-holiday traffic on the way. Ambleside Sports is like a cross between a village fete and school sports day, with the key attractions being fell running, hound-sniffing, grass track-racing, and all age wrestling.
To be honest, remembering detail of races is not my forte, suffice to say that Jenny and Mitchy rode supremely to win the women’s and men’s Omniums, supported with strong performances from the rest of the team – I can’t remember what positions we got, except that Mitchy won everything (well, maybe not the hound-sniffing), and we all came away clutching envelopes of cash and a hatful of BC points. Great support from team helper Geoff, and brilliant to catch up with Jeremy, who was involved in the judging as a member of the local cycling club.
A great day out, the weather was massively improved over last year’s Belgian conditions – might not have seemed that hot by recent Southern standards, but there wasn’t a lot of shade, so we were well-cooked by the end of the day. We would have liked a swim at the end of the day, but couldn’t find a spot to easily access a lake, so we ended up celebrating in a very shallow river, before heading back to Geoff’s local for dinner...
Friday – Despite forecasts of widespread thunderstorms and heavy rain, we got up to more sunshine in the ‘grim north’ – given the abundance of classic climbs within easy reach of Geoff’s, it was horribly tempting to go out and shred our already tender legs to pieces in the hills. Fortunately, common sense prevailed, and we took a very civilised gentle spin to a café in Middleton without competing for any of the local segments...
The afternoon’s entertainment involved a torturously slow drive down to our campsite outside Sleaford, right next to the (extremely noisy) A17, where we managed to put the tents up just before a massive storm hit. After finding dinner in a local pub, our white van boys decided that they couldn’t face the night sharing a two man tent in a storm, and bailed to a small room in a nearby B&B, where the 5 of us sheltered to watch tour highlights. Maybe they weren’t entirely soft – whilst that night was actually fine, our neighbours on the campsite came back after racing the next day to find their tent destroyed by wind and rain...
Saturday – The Heckington Show is England’s largest village show, and grass track’s blue riband event, involving the elite of the grass world – where else do you get 20,000 spectators..? The weather wasn’t actually as bad as expected, and the team gathered way too early to sit in the sun whilst waiting for the racing, watching this area’s local form of combative sport, which turned out to be medieval jousting.
Out turn to race finally came, on a main arena course that we hadn’t been able to access – the first event being the Devil, which came as a bit of a shock to the system, 40mph winds giving us problems on the long back straight. Once again, I’m no use at all in remembering results (anyone else feel free to jump in) – but fatigue was still showing in all of us – Mitchy missed out several times to finally come second overall in the ‘Victor Ludorum’ (‘Winner of the Games’ – no laurel wreath, but you do get to wear a sash...), and Jenny came third in the 800m, despite having picked up a back injury that morning. The weather did eventually catch up with us, leading to the final 8k being shortened to an extremely wet 5k due to an extremely sketchy bend. My legs had blown on the previous race, but the other boys all managed top 10, and Jenny was only just beaten by the only other remaining lady - again, another spirited performance by Ashwell/Contour, cheered on by Lily, who did a great job of organising weather protection for the 6 of us in a two man tent...
Overall, a great road trip, with excellent support from Geoff, Jeremy and Lily – and subsidised by a total prize haul of about 500 quid – we may just not get invited back again...
A picture is worth a thousand words, so just in case I haven't written enough, I'll try and put a few pics up; they probably give a better flavour...
I'm sure many of us are interested in 2019.
And for those interested in dipping their toes in grass track racing fun: Monday evenings down at the club's grass track are getting good turnouts throughout the summer, where you can try out one of the spare bikes.