Cross season 2018/19

How did it go ? Looked fun.

It was great. Wonderful to see Andy and Damo.

Thought I was going to die on lap 2 but lungs settled down and I enjoyed it after that.

Had a battle with two fellas. One smoked me like a kipper. The other one I caught and dropped. Then he came back and I laughed, he said I had been his target for most of the race. I thought it was a lost cause, but he was in sight on the last section and I noticed he was going slow on the home straight, so I went for it and pipped him on the line. He hadn't realised it was the last lap, so it wasn't a wonderfully sweet a victory.....but I claimed it.

I love Herne hill.
I love that so many people (young without kids) are there shouting at their mates.

It was Excellent to see both Andy and Sam, I was gutted I couldn't race.
Best news: 16th September is at palace.

Good work all - I doubt I will be making my cross debut this season by the look of things.

Great to see both @biarittz and @Demeaux - especially seeing the former racing again. More of this kind of thing.

As I said to Sam before the race, I really wasn't feeling up for it on the way over, but once the whistle blew all thoughts like that vanished and I had an enjoyable race. Was ahead of a couple of hitters for a while, and couldn't work out why they hadn't passed me, but after three laps or so they both came past and I tried to keep them in sight for the rest of the race. Didn't quite succeed but had fun nonetheless.

Cross back at Palace? Might ride!

Nice work both! How did the gears perform, Andy?

Dave, I'm guessing this isn't because you're basing all your training on TTs :0(

Changing jobs next month and will need to focus on that rather than any training iniitially , also Sundays are becoming more difficult due to the need to ferry Tom around his sports.

Will see how it goes as may be able to restart riding to work which might help with fitness but I fear the travelling might be a killer. If things go ok maybe a late season debut...

That's a better reply than I thought I'd get, I was expecting something about a bad back :0)

Looking at the London league list, I aim to make:
16th Sept - CP
7th Oct - HH
9th dec - Frylands
27th Jan - ?? tbc (VCL)

Any further afield that others are looking at? Leeds Castle is a good one?

Leeds castle is a banger.

Yeah, do Leeds Castle. Fairly straightforward, one gentle climb to shoulder the bike up.

Also, I know I say it every year (well, for the past couple anyway), but the EKCX round at Ford Manor Farm is spot on. Not sure of the date this year, but it's usually not long before Christmas. Yes, I know it's quite a distance from London, but treat it as a day out.

I rode the singlespeed, the rain all day made me think it might be a mech wrecker at HH so I decided the night before not to christen Di2 with a torn off rear mech.

Too posh to race

Thanks for the heads up on Leeds and Manor Farm

Leeds is hard.
It's tekkers on the off camber bumpy as fuck downhill. Then a slog backup, dodging Sam's Garmin, and then run out of steam to face a wall to climb, then more shit, then an uphill again to the turn, downhill to the line, turn, up thru the trees, turn to the off camber.

No bomb holes like the place with the pond where you can wash your bike.

Do you know it's been three years since the d2s2 ride?

Life. Eh?

Don't listen to him Sam! It's a piece of cake.

Yeah, the Garmin. Ha ha. Got a 520 now, use a lanyard when out on the CX bike.

Blimey.

Just looked, it's been two since the S&S ride.

I went out yesterday, sadly the mud is returning to the bridle paths and fire tracks around here. You would have been proud of me yesterday tho @biarittz, as soon as I was back I scraped the mud off using a screwdriver.

Can you imagine how bumpy it’ll be after this dry summer?

I’ll probably miss it, gonna be in California the week before.

Congrats on new gig Dave

Just been told im out the night before..

@biarittz - a sneaky look at the Leeds Castle hill.

https://twitter.com/cyclocross24/status/­1031093541676744704?s=21

That’s only half the size.