Great result on your hill climb, I particularly liked the description of the roadies’ reaction to the hairy-legged MTB’er, would love to have seen the look on their skinny strained faces when you dropped ‘em!!!!

Now you understand that if there’s a hill climb category in this years Club Champs, you’re gonna have to ride the Enduro to give the rest of us a chance….oh, and the road bike for the XC section…..

The day will have to be pretty dry though…

File2

CX pictures, from Dave Barry’s support crew.

Sorry about putting you to sleep…..creative writing never was my strong point

Only joking - I’ll give the CX a go at some stage. Me, I was up to even more dreary riding than Sean. I took part in a road hill climb (on a road bike! - a bit like a cross bike but skinnier). There was about 55 people at the start (and one unicycle!). We went off in groups of 10 and when they asked for the faster people for the first group I stepped foward. The skinny roadies looked around, almost in disgust as they saw a ‘fat’, hairy legged, MTB jersey wearing buck come forward.

The race was cool. The group started fast so I hung in the back for the first 4-5 minutes (there was actually a bit of a draft, and this was going up a 7% hill). Then I decided that it was a bit too easy on my legs so I went to the front and started to mildly attack. Basically I strung out the group. After about 9 minutes the overall winner attacked. I decided to let him go… I had a couple more tussels with a guy who ride XC for the Santa Cruz Syndicate and another guy but dropped them with with about 1.5km to go. A new PB up the climb and my first hard effort since the Marathon Champs. Hill climbs are fun

CX is definitely better than mountainbiking.
Picture the scene:
You’re 20 mins into the race and riding in a pack of 5, wheel to wheel at your absolute limit. Around a greasy corner and feel the back wheel slide a little but don’t dare ease off or you might lose the group. Around to the boards and see Joe McCall standing there and taking pictures while commenting on everyone’s technique…..better nail this one so…..stay in the pedals for a fraction longer than before, then unclip and swing the leg around, pick up the bike, step, jump, step, squeeze by the guy on your left as you jump a second time, ground the bike and back in the saddle, Joe shouts “VERY SLICK” and you know you’ve got it right.
Back on the gas and around to the start/finish complex, some woman shouts encouragement at the guy in front of you so its time to make a show of him, “clink clink” up through the gears and around his outside into the corner. Another place up. Into the singletrack and off the brakes the whole way through, turn so tight you’re grazing your hips off the trees as you go. Break out into daylight again and see the spectators atop the grassy knoll. Along the bottom of the hill and eye up the dismount point. Off the bike, around the corner and up the hill. Pass the guy who tried to cycle it and is now sliding backwards down it. Around the hairpin and back on the bike for the first of the muddy corners, 5 quick pedal strokes and the bike’s on your shoulder again. Up the hill, around the corner and across the sludgey bit. Back on the bike for the second muddy corner and accelerate a fraction before you’re off the bike again and up the steepest, slippiest run. Pass the guy who’s backside you’ve been looking at for the last 2 races, nail the remount then down onto the drops and through the gears to open a gap. Your heart is pounding, your lungs are screaming, your legs and pumping and you’ve only 35mins more to go.

Not even a single jump in sight and only 20m in elevation change in the whole course.

Sean