2012/13 South West Cyclo-X Junior Champion and South West Cyclo-X League Junior Champion!
Sunday saw the final race of this seasons South West Cyclocross series at Central Park in Plymouth hosted by Certini.
Heavy rain on Friday and Saturday would mean yet another wet and muddy race so we set off early on Sunday morning fully prepared.
On arrival we signed on and then headed straight out to take a look at the course and I was pleasantly surprised to find it twisty and slippery with plenty of climbs - nice, that's my kind of course :)
Did a quick sighting lap with Roy
(eliteVELO) and then we all made our way down the tarmac hill to the start line. The plan for me was to not go out too hard off the start today....
The race began and we sprinted up the tarmac section and quickly joined the grass, I settled for a 7th place initially and then quickly passed a few riders on the first technical off-camber corner to get up into 4th.
Was going really well, had great pace leading the Junior category whilst concentrating on keeping my riding consistent and smooth although the wet and muddy conditions made the going quite slow in places.....
....and then 2/3rds into the race, disaster...
...after several drivetrain 'issues' my chain eventually jammed in between the small chainring and the frame, twisting the chain in the process.....race over....my first DNF :(
That's racing I guess but at least I got to watch the epic Seniors battle between Matt Zietz and Dexter Hurlock - Fantastic riding from both and congratulations to Matt for the win - Dexter, we definitely need proper cross bikes next year! Once the race was over we hit the buffet arranged at Plymouth Argyle FC and awaited the league presentations.
So today's result was a bit annoying but I
was really happy to be presented with the overall Junior series
championship trophy and take both South West Cyclo-X Junior Champion and
South West Cyclo-X League Junior Champion titles for 2012/13 in my
first ever season of cross :)
SO STOKED!!!
Congratulations to Matt Noble - South West Cyclo-X League Senior Champion and Tim Carpenter - South West Cyclo-X League Veteran Champion.
Big thanks to Gary Andrews and everyone at Certini for organising another great cross event (definitely my favourite course of the series), everyone at
South West Cyclocross for organising a brilliant season of events and finally to everyone who has raced the series, it's been great fun - Have a fab Christmas everyone - really looking forward to racing cross again next year!....but on a cross bike ;)
