Cyclo-cross and hill climbing
Dan Street and Paget Cohen rounded off their working weeks with a rush-hour drive into Surrey in order to race on Friday 9th August. The event was Cyclo-Cross Reigate - a one-off, non-championship cyclo-cross race within Priory Park in that town.
Organising Club Redhill Raiders had worked wonders to lay out and clear a tough and technical course utilising the parks’ features. From the start on the playing fields the riders were sent up a steep climb into the woods where they would join a tarmac path to the high point of the circuit.
From there they would descend via a sequence of hairpins between trees with roots and loose earth making cornering and traction a challenge. Once back on the grass they faced a number of twists and turns before being sent back uphill towards the woods.
The woods were entered via a brutal dirt climb that only the strongest could ride and most were forced to dismount and push or carry their bikes. This time the route back down onto the fields was enlivened by branches laid across the track to hop or bump over. A few more grassy hairpins and a lap was complete.
At shortly after 7pm 92 men lined up on the grid for the start from where Dan made his customary lightning getaway as he sought to establish a high placing to defend or build upon. He couldn’t quite match that effort on the subsequent half-dozen laps of this 40-minute race, but he crossed the line 18th overall and took a superb third spot on the podium amongst the 29 men over 50.
Paget was over a minute-and-a-half behind Dan after the opening circuit and near the rear, but got into this rhythm, came within a minute of his clubmate on the remaining laps and rose to 48th overall and 11th in the same category by the chequered flag.
Dan Street by Bob Taylor
In stark contrast to Lewes Wanderers’ annual Hill Climb a couple of weeks before Eastbourne Rovers version up the same fearsome slopes of Firle Beacon was run in the winds and rain of the evening of Thursday 15th August.
Despite the adverse conditions both Lewes riders who competed acquitted themselves admirably. Alex Steer managed to avoid missing his start slot this time, but suffered the misfortune of snapping his seatpost during his warm-up. Even with having to ride the whole climb out of the saddle he recorded an excellent time of 6 minutes and 6 seconds for 5th place. Dan Street performed even better to take third place from a dozen entrants in 5:11.
