Sunday saw the early start of the National cyclo-cross series for 2002. It was held on a fast circuit in Lea near Matlock. The course was fast cut grass with a drag of a climb to the top of the course. The only running involved was a dismount for three high hurdles near the finishline. The start and finish were both on the road. The actual start started on the main road outside the venue at the bottom of a hill. The road was closed by police, we sprinted up the road for about 600m before turning sharp right into the venue before doing a small start loop. Adrian Timmis made a fantastic start, the course was narrow so you needed to be near the front. I was in about 10th place, with Dutch visitor Wim De Vos infront of me, we were all in a line behind Ada.

Part of the way up the drag of a climb I changed out of my big chain ring and the chain jammed. I don't know what happened but my rear mech exploded and the rear hanger of my bike was at 45'. Now it was a long way to the pits and this was only the first half a lap. I started to run, pushing my bike. Rider after rider came past me. I reached the top of the hill, as I am not the best of runners (especially downhill) I stood on one of the pedals and scooted down the hill. Rider after rider came past me. At the bottom I was back off running again. I was lucky to see Mike Bell who was able to get my spare bike to the nearer of the two pits. After some more running it was back to scooting, as the last rider of the field came by me I got on my spare bike!

I quickly moved up the field, passing riders all the time. I found it best to "really" try on the wider drags and have a bit of a rest on the tight-narrow sections. Once I reached about 20th place it became harder to pass riders. I was only now moving up about 3 or 4 riders a lap. I had picked up a Matlock rider who was enjoying the ride up the field on my back wheel!

With a lap to go I caught my team mate Paul Oldham, I passed him a made 8th place Stuart Blunt try right up to the line! I finished 9th....this will count as 8th as De Vos is Dutch and does not take league points. A couple of years ago I managed to win the series from an 8th place in the opening round so you never know. I actually felt quite good too.

At the front of the race is a "very-unusual" finish local home lad Matt Ellis won from top Dutch rider Wim de Vos even though Matt pulled his foot out of his pedal with 100m to go!

The next round is at Cheltenham in two weeks - get my bike fixed and hopefully I will be up at the front!

Senior Trophy Results