Notts & Derby CX, 2 Oct 2021

So, this was my first cyclocross race. It was a lovely day for it – pouring with rain so perfect CX weather!

Prior to this race I had found a local group that do some good CX training sessions so had a few weeks to build on my skills, which I found very useful when the race started. I also picked up some tips from Tim’s race guide and the other team members.

I headed straight onto the course as soon as we were allowed to do some practice laps. My heart rate was in the red! I was a bit nervous as it was really wet, and the ground was slippy – as you’d expect it to be. The course had some adverse cambers and a couple of steep descents. The first-time round I stopped at the top of the hill and walked my bike down. It looked a bit terrifying. The second time round I just went for it and managed to go down without an issue. My bike has cantilever brakes, and I was a little nervous of not being able to stop. 

After a few laps of this I lined up ready to be gridded. My name was called almost last out of about 33 girls as it was my first race, although I couldn’t help but feel I was being picked last for the team at school! So here I was ready to go. The whistle went and we were off. I couldn’t clip in and a couple of girls crashed in front of me. Great start. But somehow, I managed to pick my way through from almost last to 9th place.

Let me tell you, racing CX is HARD! Nothing could have prepared me for being in the red for 40 minutes. No recovery and no wheels to sit on. It was tough and I really did start to fade in the last lap.

I managed to hold 9th place for most of the race. However, right at the end, I was overtaken by a group of 3. I just couldn’t catch them as I was really quite tired at this point and ended up finishing in 12th place. Still, for a first race on a bargain basement bike from Ebay, that isn’t too bad. I didn’t fall off and the cantilever brakes were not an issue as I thought they’d be. In fact, stopping gradually in the wet conditions was a good thing as it probably prevented me from sliding all over the place.

The chips and coffee after the race were a winner! I will be coming back for more.

Laura Powell