What is Cyclo Cross?
Fast and furious, 50 minutes of eyeball-popping effort. Yet some of the safest and informal racing available whick welcomes newcomers through to elite. Muddy marvellous! Thin tyres, thick mud and some of the most exciting racing you will ever come across, thats Cyclo-Cross. Cyclo-Cross was an almost exclusively winter sport, but now summer evening races are a good taster. Short courses (often less than a mile long) on grass, generally in public parks or on playing fields, are usually tackled on machines which look very similar to Road bikes. Thin tyres have a knobbled tread and powerful brakes and low gears make Cyclo-Cross bikes easy to handle on the rough. Mountain bikes may also be ridden in local events. Massed starts make for fast races which are usually no more than an hour in length, shorter for juniors, women and Veterans. With ice, tree-roots and even man-made obstacles in their way, the best riders are extremely agile at mounting and dismounting whilst keeping forward momentum. .
Races have a relaxed, informal atmosphere and entries are usually accepted on the day. You do not have to have a licence, you can pay a on-the-day membership levy, but once you get into it it is worth visiting the British Cycling site to see if a licences is worth your while. A provisional licence only is enough to avoid paying a membership levy at events. There are categories for younger riders, usually with a reduced entry fee. The short lap length means that the better riders often lap some of the slower competitors, but that's not the end of the race, you can still submerge yourself in the action, enjoy your own private battles and forget whether you are first or a hundred and first.
Cheltenham & County riders compete every season in the Western League. There are also nearby events in the South West or Midland leagues.
The next planned event will be in the Western Summer league(click here) which runs events mid-week in the evening. We shall be promoting an event at Pittville on Wednesday 15th... see a poster by clicking here
I would very much appreciate offers of help for this event. Setting up will start around 4pm. We need help with the races that will run from 7.30pm. And then there is clearing up which ought to be done by 9.30pm. We need help with setting up,signing-in, marshaling, judging and taking down the course. Help for any part of this if not all would be very welcome. Let me know at johnhawes@tiscali.co.uk.
Obviously we cannot run these events without your help, so why not come and see the one event we can run on the doorstep and take in some brilliant racing?
Video of the new course over the road ...
Western League Cyclocross events and results