Cyclo-cross, ESCA 10 & 25 and racing round-up
Peter Baker spent the morning of Bank Holiday Monday 26th August participating in the Sussex Cyclists’ Association “Sporting” 25-mile time-trial . Sporting in this sense means far from flat and the twenty-two competitors were required to complete just over three laps of a roughly 8-mile rectangular loop around lanes northwest of Billingshurst. Peter’s time of 1 hour 7 minutes and 29 seconds placed him 14th overall and 8th from 11 on time-trial specific machinery.
The Challenge Tires London and South East Cyclo Cross League kicked off on Sunday 1st September. The event incorporated the opening round of the aeightbike.co Sussex Cyclo Cross League.
Promoting clubs VC Jubilee and Brighton Excelsior CC devised a course that started with a fast flat grassy section before heading up a steep incline via a series of turns to a hairpin at the the top of the course. A short downhill led into a fast turn into the woody section which was tight and twisty with lots of exposed roots and loose earth. Once back out of this leafy labyrinth it was back to the wide open grasslands, although a cyclo-cross course wouldn’t be complete without a couple of hurdles.
At ten to two on a bakingly hot afternoon four Lewes Wanderers lined up among 63 others for the race for men over 50 years of age. From the front row of the grid Dan Street made his customary lightning start to run as high as second place in the opening corners. He’d been shuffled back to 7th by the end of the first of half-a dozen laps, but fought back to 6th next time around. He was briefly demoted a place on lap four, but regained the spot on the final circuit to cross the line in an excellent 6th place.
Paget Cohen by Pip Jones
Darren Haynes lined up a few rows back from Dan and lost a few places on a hectic first lap. He improved from 22nd to 19th on lap 2, but was relegated back to 21st the next time around and returned to 22nd on the last lap.
Paget Cohen attempted to avoid the opening skirmishes, but found himself down in 41st place after two laps. From there he got into his riding and picked off riders either over the hurdles or up the steep climb to rise to 37th, then 35th on the fourth circuit and overtake four more on the last lap to place 30th from 50 finishers.
Starting on the same grid, but in the race for over 60s Stephen Burgess was ahead of Paget on lap 1 and 12th in age group. A position he held until the end of his four completed laps when two more of the seventeen competitors found a way past.
After a season of incremental improvements and “knocking on the door” Alex Steer finally broke the 25-minute barrier for 10 miles on Saturday 7th September. The event was the East Sussex Cycling Association autumn 10 on the familiar A22/Boship course. His time of 24 minutes and 58 seconds placed him 16th of 24 overall, one place and 9 seconds behind clubmate Peter Baker.
Neil Edwards had been due to join them, but a technical malfunction during his warm-up meant he had to save his effort for the following day’s 25-mile test. Neil’s time of 1:02:04 placed him a fine 7th from 19 overall and fastest road bike. Peter Baker was 58 seconds behind and 10th overall, while Alex recorded a strong 1:06:22 in his debut at the distance for 13th overall and second road bike.
