‎John Brooks and Darren Baker, made the long trip over the weekend (11th March) to Duncton in West Sussex for their final cyclo cross event of the season - the Sussex Sting CX Sportive. Riders could opt for their chosen bike, be it 29er, MTB or even single speed. John's and Darren's weapon of choice were their trusty cyclo cross bikes.
Living up to its name, the Sting was a gruelling 76km multi terrain event over the South Downs taking in a variety of surfaces including broken track, unsurfaced lanes, fire tracks and the expected very steep and challenging ascents (14% at one stage) and equally very steep and technically demanding descents over very heavily rutted farm tracks made up largely of fist sized chunks of flint and chalk, one of which was about 1.2m long.
The biting NE headwind didn't help much on the return leg but both wheelers struggled manfully to finish together in 4h 47m earning each a bronze standard in their resepctive age catagories. In all, a great ride out.