Eastern League CX Rd 6 Diss, 12 Nov 2022

I had been given some warning that the course was very short and very wet/muddy so I knew I was in for a treat. I hadn’t got there early enough for a proper warm up so managed 2/3rds of a recce as a warm up which was sort of sufficient. In that warm up I had realised the course had some hills which were very hard to ride due to how steep, muddy and slippy they were.

I signed on on the day so I was on the back row. After a poor clip in I managed to sprint down the straight and make up a few positions, and at the first hill I saw people were getting off and clambering up it so I had to as well. The first 10 or so laps were the hardest as it was full gas but after about halfway through the hour I started to settle into a rhythm. I struggled on the hills initially but eventually got used to them and ended up making up time on people towards the end because of how good I got at them. I was fast on the rest of the course as well and ended up doing fairly well in the end. Unfortunately like most other CX races I’ve done so far towards the end my back started to become very painful when getting off to run over the hurdles, however I believe it’s getting less painful each race I do as I’m getting used to the bumpiness. Anyway it was a good fun race and I’m happy with the result of 7th junior.

Chris King