Here’s a brief update of the activities of the club’s crossers.

November 14 Mistley, Essex

Hilly course in ancient woodland. Young Jonathan Sjolin had an excellent ride in the U16, with a creditable 4^th place on a very slippery and demanding course. His Dad, Soren did well to finish a gruelling 40 minutes in the Vets, finishing 52^nd, whilst daughter Alexandra finished 18^th in a field of 25 in the U12’s.

Meanwhile Alan Trolove was contesting a round of the National Series at Mallory Park. He started well, but tangled with a group of riders and lost time. Whilst making up the deficit he crashed again, sustaining injury in the unmentionables, and scored a rare DNF!

November 21 Hempton, Fakenham, Norfolk

Full contingent out at this one, with Mike Bowen achieving his best result to date, just outside the top ten in the vets, namely 11^th. He’s getting quicker each week. Barry Denny didn’t cope well with the steep climb each lap which necessitated a dismount for the entire field of vets, but finished 40^th, and best 0ver 60. (Don’t ask how many there were!). The Sjolin family were jinxed all day however. Soren punctured early in his race, Jonathan had ‘pedal trouble’ and lost half a lap whilst we fixed them but he remounted to finish 10^th, and Alexandra was a late starter in the U12’s but still finished 8^th. But it was Alan Trolove who shone, riding up the steep ascent every lap and powering away from all challengers for another race win in the U16.s

The following evening, local ace and coach Nathan Miller, who rides for Elmy Cycles of Ipswich, gave an excellent talk on the sport at our club room, highlighting the scale of the sport in Belgium and recounting his awesome ride in the Three Peaks, in which he finished 20^th out of almost 600 starters.

November 28

Twenty of us enjoyed the club’s Roads and Tracks event on Sunday which took us over 26 miles of minor roads and rights of way East of Bury. It was very cold and very icy, but we all enjoyed it a great deal, and thanks go to Richard Lines and Richard Seggar for organising, and Don and Brenda for doing the tea and cakes, with contributions from others.

At the National Series event at Southampton riders were facing equally difficult conditions, but Alan Trolove scored his best result so far with 13^th place, despite an early race crash that cost him some time, and perhaps a place or two.

Next events are the Regional Championships this coming weekend (Dec 5) at Hogg Hill, Essex with Mike and Alan representing the club. After that it’s the Broome Heath meeting at Bungay on Dec 19 and then Ipswich on Jan 2. Why not come along and see what it’s like?