Central CX Rd 4 Hemel Hempstead, 3 Oct 2021

Alastair Cowe

After a couple of fairly decent performances I was looking forward to seeing how well this one would go, on another course I hadn’t ridden before, but with the promise of some hills. After a wet week it also seemed likely that the course would be muddy.

I arrived expecting a cold race but even before the warmup I was feeling overdressed and after being called to the line did a quick baselayer removal to try and avoid overheating! It was a fast start leading down a short hill and then a right turn into the long climb that was a main feature of the course. This meant the field spread out nicely, and after a moderately quick start meant I was able to maintain a decent position. Other features of the course included a set of hurdles on an uphill (bad remount meant loss of momentum), a ‘death spiral’ (fun!), some twisty forest sections and some more sharp climbs, ending with a downhill and then a turn onto another set of hurdles before the finish straight (the remount area also on a bit of an uphill which meant it was really easy to lose momentum if you didn’t get clipped in again quickly (which I didn’t on several occasions).

Apart from some clipping back in issues, the race was mostly uneventful and I managed to make up some places, kept having to chase down a guy in MK kit only for him to pull away from me again. We also started to lap lots of other riders which was a fairly new experience for me. I finished the race feeling physically broken but enthusiastic about how it had gone. When I saw the result at home I was very pleased: 15th/53 riders which is by far my best CX result!

Tim Phillips