Cross season 2016/17 chat

Nah, team champs, later on.

Sun 05-Feb LCCA Team Championships Great Walstead School Crawley Wheelers

Damo is trying to get weak link out of the team. Sniff.

You will miss me.

;0)

I'm trying to get as many of us together as possible.
What's the max number?
Didn't we have this last year?
Can we enter 2 teams of 3 in the vets now?
@dommyracer is old enough isn't he?

Though given @biarittz's record of bailing out....

i'm up for doing this if you 're short of riders

You are confusing everyone. Team champs (5th Feb near Haywards Heath) or Regionals (4th Dec at Cyclopark, Gravesend)?

both

(I meant the team one, I didn't know the date)

We have two short riders. Does that help?

I'll be up for team champs. I 'think' the rules were you can have teams of three or four, but only three riders count toward results.

We dragged poor @biarittz out of his sick bed last year to get him to race as one of our counters. Poor lamb.

And his immaculately clean bike got filthy.

But yes, you're right, teams of 4, best 3 riders count.

And the nice ladies didn't register me properly. Which worked out nicely cos somehow they accepted Andy and Damo's times only. Or did that get rectified?

That was a BANGING course last year.

@andyp I really liked that Ardingly course, was tough but good fun

Yeah, I think it's a good one too. Some tricky technical stuff, like that off camber right hand turn into the huge hollow, and some fast open sections.

The course Crawley Wheelers (who promote the Ardingly round too) for the team champs is even better.

Foolishly I thought I may be able to target that race this year just so I could try my new tubs but babies ...

Good luck tomorrow @andyp. You might want to check Southern are running tomorrow, Southeastern are not running any services before 10am so they can check tracks for debris, and to also give their staff a few hours off....

It's the first time this season that the spare rear mech has gone in the race bag, so if it does get torn off I should, hopefully, be able to ride home still.

Southern are putting lowered speed limits in place, but intend to run a normal service. The good thing about the East Croydon to Haywards Heath line is that there are trains every 15 mins so I should be okay.

Good luck @andyp!

Have fun. Smash 'em!!

I'm on a train that is moving. Let's hope the wind doesn't cause this race to go the same way as the WC races at Kojksidje today.

Race went ahead, despite a lot of the course tape getting blown down or away overnight. Huge effort by everyone at Crawley Wheelers to get it running. Surprisingly, the course was nowhere near as muddy as I, and everyone else, expected, it was slick on top, but fairly firm underneath.

The course was a little different from last year, but probably an improvement as it felt like it flowed more. Three dismounts a lap was challenging in the conditions as it meant transferring mud from cleats to pedals, and I suffered from a few clicking in issues in the later laps. I really enjoyed the course though, a great mix of open, fast sections, some slow, tight corners and some really tricky off cambers.

Had a decent race, better than two weeks ago, and was chasing a good group going into the final lap but, annoyingly, just as I was making contact my front wheel punctured and I had to nurse it home, and lost at least two or three places as I couldn't steer properly through the tight corners that finished the lap.

Pesky puncture. Kudos for going out and smashing it.

Think the tyre burped, possibly because it hit a hurdle as I had cleat disengagement issues as approached the hurdles for the final time and somehow managed to get my foot out and stay upright.