Cyclo-cross and BMCC Sporting 25
Round 5 of the Challenge Tyres London & South East Cyclo Cross League was held on Sunday 20th October. It was promoted by Southborough & District Wheelers and held in the rolling grounds of Somerhill School in Tonbridge.
The steep grassy banks make this a tough physical test, but it was made even harder by heavy rain and strong winds, gusting to 40mph, on the day. On top of which the earlier races meant that by the time a trio of Lewes Wanderers lined up for the race for men over 50 shortly before 2pm most of that grass had been reduced to sloppy mud, making traction incredibly difficult.
This was reflected in lap times and average speeds as riders were fighting all they could to stay upright or forced to dismount and push or carry their bikes as a faster means of progress. The race was still to be run over 40 minutes, but such were the slow speeds attainable that rather than usual seven or eight laps the leading riders only covered four.
After three of these Dan Street had risen from 4th early on to a superb second place after just posting the only lap of less than 9 minutes of the whole race. Sadly he paid for that effort on the final lap as he slipped back to a, still strong, 9th from 49 at the finish.
Darren Haynes’ race was far less eventful. He was 24th at the end of lap 1, maintained that position mid-race, but dropped to 27th the next time around; a position he held to the flag.
Stephen Burgess was 10th of the men over 60 after lap 1. He put in his best lap of the race next time around to rise to 9th, but was relegated back to 10th on the next circuit when his race ended due to having been lapped.
As the time-trial season drew to a close Peter Baker tested his mettle against the stopwatch one more time as Brighton Mitre CC hosted a sporting 25-mile event on Sunday 27th November. Peter’s time of 1 hour 7 minutes and 25 seconds placed him 11 from 22 finishers.
Dan Street by Joe Benians
The 7th round of the Challenge Tyres London & South East Cyclo Cross League took place on Sunday 3rd November. East Bysshe equestrian cross-country course near Lingfield was the venue and Addiscombe CC the promoting club.
The absence of hills did not mean that the course was easy as it included a couple of steep grassy mounds, some steps, a stretch of woodland singletrack and some extremely boggy fields to ride through.
Under featureless white skies and in cool conditions Dan Street and Paget Cohen took their place on the grid for men over 50 shortly before 2pm.
From the second row Dan made an unusually slow start and was demoted to 13th place by the end of lap 1. He fought back to improve three places the next time around and a further place on lap 5. He was clipped by another rider as they tussled for leading into the wooded singletrack, but maintained 9th to the chequered flag after half-a-dozen circuits.
Paget made his all-too-familiar poor start and was briefly dead last on the opening circuit, before getting into this rhythm and rising to 56 the first time he crossed the finish line. He gained another three spots next time around as many riders came down in the treacherous conditions. He avoided coming down himself, but was lapped by the leaders on lap 4 and his clubmate the next time around as ended up 50th from the 60 to start.
