Here Come The Snowballs: Heptonstall CX

I know it mentioned fancy dress on the web site but it wasn't clear that it was compulsory, or that you'd be snowballed if you weren't wearing any!

With the Macc Supacross nearly a two hour drive away the Heptonstall event was a more sensible choice. In retrospect sensible is not a word that could really be applied - well organised lunacy with a large helping of fun, yes; sensible, no. We met up with Nick from Clifton CC who had obviously interpreted the flavour of the event more ably thasn myself and had dressed bike and rider as a Christmas tree complete with working fairy lights! He desrvedly won one of the many fancy dress prises on offer for his efforts.

Having found myself along with about half a dozen other riders in the embarrassing 'no-win' scenario of racing a fancy dress event in a skinsuit (Which might go down ok at 'Submission', well if it were PVC and had spikes!) what to do? At the start I decided to just roll along and enjoy things (including the snowballs) only to have everyone else shoot off. After a lap I decided the humiliation of racing a fancy dress event in a skinsuit and loosing as well would be too much so started racing. The down side to this was more frequent snowballing - some of those U12s have good right arms - and more frequent viewing of Phil Thackray's rear, I may need some of Mark FM's therapy to fully recover from that! More pictures, especially the children's fancy dress outfits available at Jo's Hanglebads Flickr

Next year full on fancy dress - a great fun event!

LVRC Cyclocross National Championships

I raced under the HCT Belgians banner for the first time on the 19th at the National Champs held near Ashorne in Warwickshire, though sadly not in my eagerly awaited new kit.

To be honest I was what you might call cannon fodder in a race with seventy two entrants, between them holding one hundred and seven International and National titles.

Race day brought with it a temperature of -12 and a good four inches of snow. Conditions also saw the field on the day shrink to just over forty riders, though most of those were the real contenders. After letting nearly all the air out of my tyres I set off for a few practice laps. A lap was what you might call 'old skool' typified by the lack of man made hurdles but more than made up for by the fence jumps. And the terrain though innocent looking was a maze of carefully concealed frozen solid deep tractor ruts. Oh deep joy.

To the race. Well I was on my own pretty quickly as expected, old they might be but slow they ain't. Lap after lap was a lonely experience that consisted of dropping back of the fast stuff and catching up on the technical stuff. However on the penultimate lap I went down big time, leaving a line of Claret in the snow and my bars and levers at jaunty angles. I did hobble back to the marshals and riders went past me, they did however get me going again with just time for one lap and a chance to catch an old boy just before the line.

I appear to have finished 19th? Though the results only show twenty two finishers! That's some rate of attrition.

Christmas Presence...

The eagle eyed, regular returners among you will have noticed a minor facelift to the blog over the last few days. Partly instigated by my need to meddle with the aesthetics of anything (if I change the link colour one more time somebody shoot me) and partly due to the ever growing team list, that on the previous layout took an eternity to scroll to the bottom of.

Yep, that's right, a growing team list. So here's some more names to become familiar with:

Andrew McHugh: Founder member of Hit the North taking time out to avoid getting fired and/or divorced. Keen but not very accomplished MTB and occasionally CX racer (still getting to grips with the dark art of the rapid remount). Forum loud mouth under the pseudonym of Harry The Spider.

Carl Keen: Races cross in the Central League and a bit of road with the LVRC and a smidgen of XC. When not racing, he's riding the lanes of the Chilterns in search of Belgian toothpaste.

Carl Nelson: A North West Cyclocross stalwart and Crossjunkie interval session sparring partner.

Cheryl King: Loves cycling, loves photography and love the fact she gets to combine both. We love the fact Cheryl manages to capture some of our better moments on film (well CCD actually).

Dave Haygarth: A nearly has-been proper cyclocross specialist as nearly was a proper cyclocross specialist. Veteran of the 3 peaks since 1995 and a dedicated Wheelbase rider who was once forced (fairly willingly) to share a bed in a Premier Inn with Rob Jebb.

John Elkin: Rides (usually singlespeed) cross through the winter and sportives during the summer. Usually nips across for Flanders, Roubaix, Amstel Gold and LBL, good riding and great racing.

Phil Haygarth: Ronde? tick. 3 peaks? tick. Museeuw dispatching Tchmil in 1995 on the Muur? tick. Here Come the Belgians approved? Big tick.

Rachel Calvert: Possibly the Enigma's financial controller. Rachel sends money, I send kit to Yorkshire. I think I have the basis for a spy thriller (or a kick in the nuts for mindless ramble).

Steffan Chandler: Actually won his first cross race, as a junior 23 yrs ago and then won the Yorkshire champs in his 2nd race the week after... Unfortunately wins are hard to come by nowadays and the best he can muster was 5th overall in the NW league last year (don't let the undersell fool you Steff races hard and fast, laughs alot and heckles even better).

There, intros done. Have a great Christmas, enjoy the racing over the festive period and I'll probably catch up with a few of you trackside...mine's a mulled wine and mince pie.

...or a beer

...or a baileys

...and don't forget the pork pie with egg.

Here Come's ...Christmas

Last Sunday saw the inaugural running of the Cult Racing Mega Cross at Top Barn, organised by none other than our own Mark Leyland of Choose Cycling.

The event went off well in cool, crisp, sunshine with an excellent circuit around Top Barn Activity Centre including a few BMX jumps, planks and precarious stretches beside the frozen lake. As this wasn't a counting event in the West Mids League I decided to relax, dress down (it was a bit chilli for the skinsuit) and get into the festive swing of things, as you can see below (courtesy of Andy Whitehouse):


and as it was US National Singlespeed champs I decided to see how hard it would be to race my hefty Specialized Singlecross - and although it was hard it was fun, especially over the BMX jumps. Coming in 10th overall in the J/V/W race, I was quite pleased with my return to racing after crash 3 weeks earlier and hopefully kicking the racing spirit back into me ready for my Christmas campaign.

So Merry Christmas and Happy racing Belgians :D

A full report of Mark's event can be found the BCF site here

Peel Park CX Pictures.

Alan in action at Peel Park on Sunday.

More pictures can be found on my site featuing many from "that descent" http://qwertyphoto.com/2010/crashtastic-peel-park-cyclo-cross-pictures

Santa might be late this year...

Due to weather conditions and new economy severe delays have to be expected. Yes, gone is the sledge and it would bring tears to Your eyes, if I would tell You what happened to the reindeers. Even good old Santa is not the same anymore, shaved and on diet to fit into slim-fit jersey and the new small chimneys.



So here he goes with an old steel frame, left over cross tyres, the front Tufo has left the market already some years ago, some hot tea and a big bag on a titanium carrier. Big bag, want to know what is inside? Well, in exchange for some christmas beer someone with long ears traded me a confidential tape, it is the christmas gift decision process (CGDP). In the CGDP Santa advises his only left over elf what to put in the big bag. For the reason of ISO 9001 the CGDP is documented on tape.



"He, elf, any cycling teams left on the list? May be one team with wishes I can understand without a degree in medicine!" "Well, Santa, Team here come the Belgians, it says plenty of Belgian beer and chocolade, pralines." "They shall skip the sweet stuff and shall be granted free entries to a race early next year. In respect to the beer, they shall get of their lazy back ends and do it themselves like Phil. What else?" "One needs a another rear mech and a new rear wheel" "Well, we had some rejects of 5600 parts by these - Oh Santa I asked for a 5700 not a 5600 people - how I love them! Give him one of those, some old DT spokes and a key, there is no budget for new wheels! Next"



"This guy wants 24 bottles of Kerner white wine, as we still owe him for the carrier and bag." " Send Micheal Frank a six pack of Spa mineral water explaining that alcohol is not healthy." "The next poor chap needs a gift for his girl friend."


"Let me see, we still have a empty lingerie box and my too small summer jersey. Ho ho, love to see her face, either she calls him a cheapo and walks off or she really loves him and stays with till the rain stops in England, which is basically to the end of time. BTW, we save 80% compared to the original content of the box.



Oh, is Duncan also on that list? No matter what he wants, send him some coloured pencils to enable him to do a even better design in 2011." "Santa, I'm worried about this person, everything he wants is related to cross - including St. Andrews cross!!" " We could send him to a cross clinic - a red cross clinic, ha ha. No too expensive, we still have to cover that bill of Lindsay, send him some ballot papers and a pencil. Let us do it the other way round, what do we still have in stock?" "Some wooden floor and a purple jersey we picked up at the London Fashion Week Too late entries sale."



"Well, make Bentini signing that old wood and label it as a do it yourself home track to Mark Thomson, that jersey we wrap in a Harrods bag with an old Vogue, put on a limited edition sticker and send it off to last name on the list. Who is that anyway?"

Here Come The Belgian(beers)s

Seeing all the Belgian beer discussion on E-Mail this week jogged me into action... Part of my winter cross training this year (as god knows you can't get out on your bike in West Cumbria at the minute!)has been setting up an all-grain (IE From scratch) nano-brewery with a couple of mates.

We've all pitched in some cash to buy equipment and ingredients and chosen a beer to brew. My first effort is a Trappist-Style brown beer, about 8.4% ABV, as part of my continuing and deepening obsession with all things Belgian.

Now, here's the rub. Firstly, I'd like tasters to send a couple of 330ml bottles to for evaluation, after Christmas when it's been bottle conditioned properly. Secondly, Mark, I'd like to call the beer Here Come the Belgians and have Erik on the label, is that acceptable?

So then.. Volunteers?

North of England CX Championships

With very wintery conditions leading up to the championships and fresh snow the day before forcing the GO Cross event to be cancelled it was always going to be an 'interesting' event! Sadly 'crossjunkie' succumbed to his cold and domestic responsibilities as the family followed his viral lead to leave just Mark T and myself as the 'Belgian representatives riding. Clear roads and a beautiful day drew us up to the Lakes and some truly wonderful views by the shore of Windermere. Check out Jo and Cheryl's pictures to get a flavour of the atmosphere. The organisers had done a great job of clearing and gritting the car park and generally making the venue hospitable. After watching Mat race in the U12s it was time for Mark and me to line up and enjoy what was to come!

A fantastic and varied course with both deep crusty as well as hard packed snow and a little ice kept both the interest and the effort levels high. There was the novelty of the deep snow forcing a running start for most, apart from Yorkshire's CX Peter Pan; Chris Young, who managed to ride it! The start suited me and I got away well, following some good heels ;-) and seeing a few familiar Yorkshire faces around me. Unfortunately this all went wrong soon after we all remounted for the decent and right turn a rider in front went down taking me with him. It was a minor crash and shouldn't have been a problem apart from an inept decision on my part to try and re-mount in the deep snow - oops. No momentum, no re-mount. Riders streaming past, wobble, dismount. Pick the bike up and run to the compacted (and rutted) snow, re-mount clumsily and start chasing! For some reason I couldn't settle into any sort of 'flow', probably due to a lack of snow riding skill. I just kept making lots of little errors each lap, always at different points on the course too, there wasn't even any consistency in my inconsistency! Apart from the zigzags across the meadow I never felt that I could go hard and I seemed to spend much of the race in a sort of no mans land between groups - by the time I started to gain on the group in front the race was over as a result of those rather nippy juniors lapping us before the finish line, they were given all of a minute head start after all ;->

All in all a challenging, rewarding and immensely enjoyable course.Kit wise I was comfortably warm with just knee warmers and a single base layer under the skin suit. The de-icer seemed to work a treat on the pedals and I had no issues clipping back in this week so that's one lesson learned! However plenty of lessons to take away for next time... Results and more photos etc over on the British Cycling web-site.

Belgian hits th boards

Well after many months finally passed my track accreditation so started training indoors,and did my first race last Friday which was certainly a bit more scary than my first cross race,no soft mud or grass to fall on here and no one shouts rider when they are about to pass you just feel a whoosh of air, all good fun and I am sure great training for cross not done as many cross races as I wanted this year but I did want to get this accreditation sorted so now hopefully back on it.