West Midlands CX League Rd 13, 2 Jan 2022

The last round of the WMCCL brought lots of mud and rain and a very technical course. Durning the warm up I wondered if this was going to be more of a cross country run than bike ride, as the mud was often too deep to pedal through.

As usual I was gridded at the back of about 30 riders which meant I would have to try and sprint to the front. When the whistle blew the riders in front of me took their time to clip in and actually start pedalling which was annoying, however, I managed to sprint around and get to the front group of riders. (The only point in the race where I was ahead of the winner of the series who is a XC world champion!)

During the race it felt like I spent more time on the floor than actually riding which was embarrassing as I kept falling off where there were lots of spectators who found it very amusing🙄. Each lap took around 9min for me to complete with about 3min of that time running. Compared to the other cyclocross races I have done this season it wasn’t a race where I was trying my hardest as the gap from me to the riders In front was too big to close after a big crash I did down a hill where I lost loads of time. The gap to the riders behind was about 1min30 and I was in 3rd, so for the second half of the race I just tried to stay on my bike instead of on the floor!

I really enjoyed racing CX this winter and plan on entering the whole series next year and hopefully placing top 3 overall in the senior woman category at the end of it.

Aoibh Clarke