Cyclo Cross Team Championships

Stephen Burgess by Sam Bacon

The final event of the Challenge Tyres London and South East Cyclo Cross League was the Team Championships held on Sunday 13th February at Ardingly Showground and promoted by Crawley Wheelers.

In the absence of any other clubmates Lewes Wanderers Stephen Burgess, Darren Haynes and Dan Street entered the support race under the “Never Mind the Pidcocks” banner rather than the main event. 

The 83 starters were set off in four groups in order to ease congestion and the impromptu team made the tactical decision to place their most experienced rider - Stephen - in the first group.  Darren started in the second bunch a minute afterwards and relative-newbie Dan in the third tranche a further 60 seconds later.

Thanks to his favourable gridding Stephen was up in 15th position at the end of the first of ten laps, with Darren in 29th and Dan back in 51st.  As the race strung out Dan was able to ride with more freedom and had improved to 44th by the end of lap two, with Darren up to 27th, now just six places behind Stephen.

Darren lost a couple of places on lap three, while Stephen was still ahead in 22nd and Dan made up more time and half-a-dozen positions to lie 38th.  By now the trio could spot each other regularly as the race twisted through the sand within a barn - one of the quirks of this unusual course, but something of a relief from the mud outdoors, particularly as rain arrived during the second half of the race.

By the conclusion of lap 4 Darren was right on the rear wheel of Stephen in 27th with Dan now up to 35th.  One lap later the order had reversed as Dan put in a swift lap to rise to 28th.  Once Dan was past him Darren assisted as much as he could by slowing those trying to follow, but at his own progress as he was now 33rd with Stephen right behind.

Dan found it hard to make further improvement, but managed to gain another four spots to be the 24th rider to meet the chequered flag.  Darren and Stephen found themselves lapped by the leaders on their penultimate tour so saved themselves another five to six minutes of effort and crossed the line in 36th and 46th respectively.

Classification was determined by points based upon finishing position rather than cumulative time and of the twenty-one teams with the best three riders to count the Lewes threesome placed a respectable 9th place.