Round 9 of the Eastern CX League took us to West Stow Country Park, home of West Suffolk Wheelers.

While there was no mud this week (the course drains particularly well), we still had another classic CX ingredient: sand.

Twenty-three female riders lined up, and thanks to a fairly consistent season so far, I found myself slightly terrifyingly gridded on the front row.

Unfortunately, starts aren’t my strong point. A combination of nerves, an uphill start, and my general lack of sprint power meant I didn’t really make the most of the opportunity and was overtaken by several riders before we turned left at the top of the hill. The course quickly settled into singletrack, weaving through trees and woodland, with a couple of small logs to hop or roll over (I chose the latter!). It then opened out into a field with some really nice flowing sections.

The key technical feature of the course was the sand: deep and around 30 metres long. After some good advice to attack it hard, drop a couple of gears, look ahead, and keep pedalling, I decided to go for it. That advice — along with the cheers from the sidelines — paid off, and I successfully rode through the sand on all four laps. This was a huge achievement for me and one of my main goals for the day.

The final technical section was a set of steps, requiring a quick remount at the top before heading back downhill.

I managed to stay with a small group of four riders (including Catenary Coaching’s Sophie Lee) for a while, until one rider made a decisive break. Near the end, I made a slightly silly mistake while overtaking a lapped rider, which meant I had to chase hard to get back onto the remaining two riders for the final 200 metres. I’ve never really been in that sort of racing position before, so I had no real sense of tactics — but I learnt a lot from watching the riders ahead of me.

I finished 1st Masters Female (50–59) and 11th overall out of 23. Position aside, I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t take more risks or try to move up further, but that’s easy to say in hindsight — especially as my numbers suggested I was already working pretty hard!

Thanks to Tim for the well-timed pep talk a few days beforehand when I was feeling a bit anxious. There’s a short break in the league now until the end of January, but hopefully plenty of off-road riding before then.

Julie Taplin

Eastern CX League Round 9, 14 Dec 2025

© Catenary CoachinG