Eastern League CX Rd 6 West Stowe, 5 Nov 2022

To mix up my winter training, I thought it would be fun to enter the CX race at West Stow. As I’m still fairly new to CX racing, I went into this race with no expectations and had the mentality of ‘just enjoy the race and not worry about results’.

I did a couple of practice laps during course practice. The course was really nice and it had such a variety of things to make the race challenging. There was a long drag uphill which was muddy, there was a few technical corners, 50m of deep sand, steps on an uphill and a few logs and hurdles. So there was something for everyone. During the course practice I managed to hit the top of my knee on the hurdle (an injury before the race event started!) so this knocked my confidence a little.

We had a random gridding in place and by surprise I was gridded on the second row rather than at the back. I didn’t have the best start as I pulled my foot out of the pedal but I managed to get it clipped back in and overtake a few riders after the first bend. The pace was quite fast and the group had strung out already. I felt strong on the muddy drag so I managed to overtake a couple of more riders. My aim was to keep chasing the riders in front. I eventually got myself into a rhythm and was getting away from the riders behind. The second lap for me didn’t go too great. I was feeling good and settled into the race well, but as I approached the logs in the forest section, my left cleat became stuck from the mud and so I crashed. Lucky just a few bruises but the two riders who I almost caught in front managed to get away. I got back on the bike and tried to chase them down again whilst also trying to stay away from the riders behind. By the third lap I caught a rider just past the off camber. My legs were slowly getting tired but I just kept chasing. I caught another rider in front of me on the muddy drag but this time we were having some close competition. She overtook me on some of the technical sections but when we got to the sand section, I knew it would be quicker to run it so I overtook her again. By the 4th lap she overtook me again but this time I couldn’t quite catch her. So I spent this last lap in no man’s land and was going at my own pace.

At the end I finished 17th overall and second overall in age group. I really enjoyed the race as it was something a bit different than what I am used to. But I definitely want to do some more CX racing in the future :)

Amy Harvey