herne hill cyclo cross

[kieran]

Hi , I was down at the last session on jan 2nd to watch my son do the under 10's and saw an ACC do the main race, I think it was Sylv? I'm considering doing the next one in Feb, never done one before any wondering how the course was? hopefully not too technical as no cyclo-cross experience and little MTB either! Cheers, anyone else up for it? looked good fun.

[adrian]

Forgive my ignorance, but what's involved here?

[kieran]

The guys down at HHV have created a cyclo cross course which winds its way around the grounds, including the centre of the track and the rough ground around it, I'm not sure of the course length but the main race last time was for 1 hour and in that time the winner did 9 laps and most others did 8. There were races for juniors, youths and others. Some were really flying and others seemed to be more enjoying it than racing.

[sylv]

Kieran, yes it was me the other day. After a break from racing since October I was looking forward to a nice local, easy-going race as it had been publicized on Londoncyclesport. But I think due to another cx race elsewhere that got cancelled, we got racers such as William Thomson who though only a junior races at national level! (he came 4th yesterday at the Nationals). So it went pretty fast from the start and I couldn't keep up. I also had bodged a close-ratio cassette for my mtb and the gears with this were just not working, a nightmare especially with all the muddy grass that got caught in it.

But I really enjoyed the race. The course was pretty good considering its location - when I first got there and I saw tape in the centre of the velodrome I thought the whole course was in there! But it got in and out of it and there were off-camber banks, very bumpy fields, a couple of ups you had to dismantle and run, and the obligatory couple of wood planks to jump over.

I'd recommend this course as a first try for cyclo-cross - not really technical (although can be tricky if it's wet), very short (we did 9 laps I think in an hour).

There is also a race at Eastway which is a brilliant course on 29th Jan, and the team race that concludes the London League series on 5th Feb also at Eastway (we had a team last year, I would be up for more this year).