Always up for trying something new on the bike, and looking for the healthy edge of “competition”, i perused the local offerings on the British Cycling events page, and spotted the Yorkshire Cyclocross Summer Series.
Having tried a few of the circuit races last year at Boddington, and one over at the Wyke community circuit, I fancied seeing just how much of a multi function bike my GRX is.
I thought there might be the added bonus of potentially finishing on the same lap as the rest of the bunch, being as there was the option to register as Veteran 40-49.
Arriving early to try and grab a couple of practice laps on track before the juniors started don’t really work out – traffic on the way, and lots of people signing on meant I only got my number and bike set up just as they were ushering off the practice lappers.

Taking a strategic position observe the juniors going round highlighted a couple of areas where Ineas going to have issues straight away – sliding bikes & kids on the floor – looked like a prime section for ankle twisting or wrist breaking. Noted and planned areas of taking it easy, and pushing if needed.

Soon enough, the wind was picking up, the sun was going down, and it was time for the the seniors race.

A evident oversight on my reading of the agenda quickly appeared – all age groups start together, male and female at 1 min interval. Looks like lapping was going to occur.

Second evidence oversight appeared when sat on the start line. My optimism that the sunny weather this week might have dried out the mud disappeared as I sank inch by inch into claggy mud. The gravel-road tyres seemed an increasingly bad choice.

With a 140 people on the start line, there were far more people than the previous track races I’ve done – but this rapidly dissipated after the start line. Struggling to get any traction in the mud, my row 10 starting rapidly turned in to the back of the field, and promptly overtaken by the female starters

That really set the race for me – occasional pushing where mud was un-tractionable, scooting around the slope traverse to avoid injury, bunny hopping over the hurdles, and trying to stay out of the way of leaders.

All with a massive grin.

Such a fun race. Really hard going, but with the large entry list, there was never any really quiet parts where cycling alone.

Friendly crowd, and no stress from the leaders, even though they were going so much faster.

A pretty technical circuit, but great for building handling skills.

Distance for me – 4 laps, at 13:50 average per lap.

Elevation – 407 ft

Average speed – 6 mph

5 more races in the series, next one in Sheffield. Not going to make it there, but Temple Newsham for round 3 could be a potential. With maybe some different tyres …

Not photos of race, but one of the bike after