Autumn sees the start of the Yorkshire Cyclocross Association winter series, kicking off at the Wyke community cycle track.

Having dithered about signing up earlier in the year, Jimmy loaned me some grippy mud tyres which gave me the nudge to register. Given the pretty decent summer and early autumn, and drought conditions, I was looking forward to a fairly solid grass ride.

That was before the biblical downpours of the past week, but unperturbed I saw the weather was good for Sunday so headed over in plenty of time for registration and to watch some of the earlier races.

On the way to get my bib number, I could see the earlier races walking around a chuck of the route, covered in mud. It was then I also readied the track had been used on the Saturday for a different race series. Ah well, it’ll be grand.

Number collected, waiting for the track to open up for a recon lap, I see Jimmy getting registered in and limbering up. One lap to to get an idea of where we’re going – it’ll be grand. It was tough! Lots of mud, lots of walking with the bike. I then managed to totally fluff the recon by heading for Jimmy while he was washing off his bike in the pits instead of finishing the lap – turns out I missed off a big chunk of the lap! Ah well – a voyage of discovery for the race.

I must admit, the recon lap did have me questioning my life choices, and I was contemplating not starting. Doing this just for fun, I always worry about getting in the way of people actually doing it for points. But, Jimmy reassured me that even if I was going to be a mobile chicane, the track was long enough – that I wouldn’t be a huge issue.

So, just over an hour later, I lined up at the back of the grid – number 48 out of 49 starting position – for the off. Easy start, remembering to press go on the Garmin, and ease into the race. All was going great, cutting through the mud, dropping further back running up the stairs, going steady for the first laps.

And that was pretty much my race. Sorry, I mis-spelled gentle pootle in the afternoon sun. Gradually got into the handling of virtually flat tyres through the race, gaining a bit more confidence each lap and by my final tour of the course I was heading through more of the corners at speed than I’d have thought possible after the first recon. Totally bizzare to feel so sluggish turning corners on the tarmac but to have the more agility in the mud. More practice needed!

Excellent to see Jimmy powering through the race, and both of us shouting out support to each other when we crossed over.

Got in to a bit of a race with some guy from
Ilkley CC and another rider on my final tour, and managed to pull off a pass and keep it to the line.

My distance: 9.1 km, in 62 mins, with average HR 158, peak 184.

Jimmy went further, and faster!

Summary: so much mud, everywhere! Great workout!