CCH cross riders getting deeper into the mud / season

Bart about to hit the beach at Grafham Water.

 The Cyclocross season is now in full flow and its been a while since I wrote up any of the races CCH has been at, and there have been a lot of them - and a lot of rain. Whilst the rain hasn't been falling too heavy during the races its been doing its best to soften up the courses and riders. This was most evident last weekend at Grafham water - the St Ives CC round of the Eastern Cross league.

Bart negotiating a ditch at Grafham

 The course had more than its fair share of Somme like landscapes - perhaps appropriate the day before Remembrance Sunday - and included two sections of beach, with many riders making use of the reservoir to clean their wheels on the move.

Andy and Harry after their visit to the spray booth

Sometimes you can be too busy racing to enjoy the view

Andy and Harry both had good races in the vets race followed by Stanley, Harry G and Frank R in the U12s. Ned, Frank M, Louis B and Logan then rode in the youth race. All the races had big fields with many racers coming down from the midlands to compete and London Leaguers looking for a race as they didn't have one on last weekend. Unfortunately for yours truly and Gary this meant our 80 mile dash following Saturday morning training was in vain and we didn't get a start despite arriving before the half hour cut off time and being league members. To say we were less than pleased would be an under estimate. Still at least we didn't have to spend the rest of the day cleaning our bikes and kit. Bart had to ride in the over subscribed senior race by himself Results here.

Logan at the Rapha Super cross before he got coated in foam.

The weekend before Harry and Frank took part in the Cross by the Sea near Llanelli in South Wales, both of them enthused about the sandy nature of the course and did pretty well in their races. The day before this Gary, Harry G and Stanley were racing on the opposite side of the country at the Mistley Cross near Manningtree - results.

Honestly I haven't just nicked that guys bike....

The weekend before this the whole crew were out at Davy Downs near Lakeside on a tight little course that had more than its fair share of technical sections - two flights of stairs, ditches, muddy forest sections and a wooden bridge that was extremely slippy in the drizzle. I'm not sure if any rider ended up in the pond or the river that followed that section but I saw some come pretty close. Results here.
This however was the second race of the day for myself and Logan as we had hot footed it over to Lakeside from High Beeches where we had taken part in the Beacontree Wheelers/ ELV Hill Climb at Mott Street. Possiblt not the best warm up for a cross race. A fair number of CCH riders took part and watched as we made this the 2012 CCH club Hill Climb championship - the results were 1st Keir at 2min 47 seconds, 2nd Daichi at 2.52, 3rd Mostyn at 2.57, 4th Neil at 3.00, 5th Logan at 3.31, 6th Alan Wood at 3.40, 7th Henry Stewart at 3.42 and 8th Tyrell at 3.53 with a puncture. I'm sure we've all gone up Mott Street quicker than that in training but the results stand so lets see more out there giving it a go next year. Personally I put my poor time down to forgetting to take the bell off my bike ....

Sadly this was the only photo Robbie took
of the racers at the ELV Mott  St Hill Climb