Rich and Josh were wrapping up their CX seasons at the final NDCXL round in Broxtowe, while over in the east, Nick T, Nick P and Ross were enjoying some MTB action in the Thetford Winter Series.
In the vets race, Rich managed to dodge the rain and take 7th place on a very muddy course, whilst Josh braved apocalyptic hail and storms in the Juniors, racing with (and through!) the Seniors to take 1st Junior, and 8th overall
Josh: "Saturdays course was a mud bath, last race of the season. A proper epic. Thunder and lightning on the start line - certainly didn't feel like lighting in my legs. 10 minutes in the hail came, pounding and punishing all riders brave enough to venture up Everest to the start line. A fast start put me into 3rd and I drifted back into a position I could hold. Slogging through the depths of mud , running up the clay climbs that felt like ice. Course was an epic, conditions next to none and never repeatable. There's something about standing in a van frozen solid after a race thawing the iced mud on my whole body that makes cyclocross the sport it is. I'll miss that in the summer!"
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| Swap! (Photo thanks to Ian Nutt) |
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| (Photo thanks to Ian Nutt) |
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| Rich, with decidedly cleaner kit than Josh! |
Nick T: "Always a bit of a risk racing first time on a new bike without much time to break it in and tease out any issues, but I was happy to take the risk.
Conditions were unusually wet /cold for Thetford. In all the years I've raced there, whatever the season, the weather has always been good to me! I was gridded on the second row, but with a rolling lead out start there was no stress. Everything started well, coming through lap 1 in 7th place, then lap 2 in 6th place. Lap 3 is where the problems started. At first I thought the saddle had moved on its clamp, but then it's deck dropped to right with a crunch. Never a good sign on a carbon saddle. I carried on in hope it would hold out, but with only an hour and a half on the clock I felt a little deflated. I spent as much time out if the saddle as possible to ease the stress on it, but inevitably I knew it was game over by end of lap 3.
It not like me to climb off. It's something I 'don't do'. But no seat, no choice!
Saddle back to the shop for warranty replacement and eyes down for round 4 at Thetford 23rd Feb. Enough said! "
We're happy to report that Mr Towers' softer parts stayed free of stray saddle shards!
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| Nick T, before saddle incident! |
Ross: I had a good start and led out the 25 (ish) riders in my race. Paddy Atkinson who won last time came past me at lightning speed and I knew I couldn't go with him for the whole race because he maintained that pace at the last round. I sat in a group of 3 for most of the race in 2nd, 3rd and 4th position. On the last lap, I upped the pace to see what they had in their legs and one was dropped out the back straight away. I kept the pace going and the other one backed off too and left me riding in 2nd place on my own. By this point I had nothing at all left in my legs and was just trying get to the finish line, with 5 minutes till the finish my old team mate Ben Morris came by me looking really strong for the end of a 2 hour race and I couldn't do anything about it so I finished 3rd. My legs were aching so much after the race that I couldn't even bend down to take my cycling shoes off! I know for next time that shorts are not good for 2 hour races in January!
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