South of England Cyclocross Champs – Mud wrestling for 2nd place...
One of the best things about racing bikes is all the places you get to see in your travels. Sunday was another chance to tick off a city on the map of the UK that I had always wondered about –Southampton, England for the South of England Cyclocross Champs. I didn’t get off to the greatest start in the morning though which made me little under hyped for the race after riding to the train station at 7am and getting saturated to the bone. My so called waterproof jacket and trousers are not nearly as handy as advertised and I basically froze until the Swindon crew picked me up when I started looking a bit purple. 1.5 hours in the van gave me a bit of time to thaw alongside a quick spin around the course to check out the damage from the rain gods. The rain had turned the course into a slippery mud pit in which the bike became ‘one with the mud’. There were concerns that I may not be let on the train after the race with my bike that had taken on a new identity as ‘mud man’ so it was a good thing that there weren’t any train conductors around on Sunday evening!
There were 10 women racing which was a good show considering it wasn’t a national event and our Swinden team had 3 women entered (Claire, Andrea and myself). We started in the middle of a field before taking a right hand turn into more bog and slush and it would have to be the slowest start I have ever seen a women’s field get off to. There was so much mud and so little traction I think we rolled off the line at around 5km per hour – it was pretty funny. Maddie Horton lead from the start and hammered on through with Caroline Goward and myself chasing. Caroline and I fought it out for a bit but I got ahead of her in the second lap where it became a balancing act to stay on the bike while trying to reel in Maddie, but she won convincingly by about a minute. After the race she told me she the spent the whole time in big ring! Apparently it made it easier. Perhaps I’ll grow some more muscles this week and give that one a go for the next round of the Nationals…
It was a good hit out after not racing for 6 weeks and my lungs definitely paid the price. I always get a horrible smokers cough after races (I definitely don’t smoke!) which is not particularly attractive and I usually sound like I need to be carted off to a hospital. I like to think of it as a sign that I have really punished the body. I’ve asked around and everyone else I know seems to get this, so I have just put it down to one of the not so charming side affects of racing your heart out.
Big thanks to Andy, Claire, Crispin, Andrew and the rest of the Swindinites for transport and pit support. If you want to get a taste first hand for this crazy sport check out the utube video of the races here: http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/cyclocross/article/cyx20091207-South-of...
