Two weeks off and the biggest field of the year does not help your ‘cross legs…
Crawley Wheelers once again organised the end-of-season Team Champs and whilst I haven’t had much SDW company during the season, suddenly we had five teams!
I tried to push my way to the front at the start, but it was chaos and a couple of the more established teams had a good stranglehold on the grid.
The lap was in reverse from last year and this made for a great first section where I made up plenty of places by shouldering the bike and sprinting through the tight switchbacks. Down into the woods, my Schwalbe tyres were working great and I was making up time, but soon enough my bike was clogging up with mud!
On the long sloggy switchback I was gradually making up time on my nearest SDW team mates and when it came time swap bikes they’d all but disappeared! It’s never good to lose to your team mates, but after a whole season of racing ‘cross I knew I absolutely couldn’t hold my head up if I wasn’t the first rider home!
Big thanks to Emma Lewis (Adalta) for handing up my bike in the pits so that I could get on with racing. The Conti tyres on the spare bike left me slightly wanting in the woods, but it was quite fun sliding through the smashed up course. I was finding some sweet lines around the worst of the ruts, so even though I was racing like Cavendish in January it was loads of fun.
Lapping team mates was now the game to play and with so many on course it was like having an eternal carrot to bite at! 26th place was my second worst result of the season, but it was ace to have so many SDW riders out and hopefully a few of them will become slightly more regular sights in next seasons racing. Especially well done to the Womans team and the Vet A team on some first rides and some fine results respectively.
Team Results;
Vicious Velo
London Dynamo
Crawley Wheelers
18th Team/7th Vet Team – SDW Vet A
22nd Team – SDW Sen B
24th Team – SDW Sen A
33rd Team/10th Vet Team – SDW Vet B
35th Team/1st Womens Team – SDW Wom A
Individual Results;
Russell Short (London Dynamo)
Kevin Knox (Vicious Velo) +0:40
George Higgs (Crawley Wheelers) +0:41
26th Glen Whittington (SDW Sen A)(on loan from The Velo House – Scott Cycling) +06:52
44th Keith Henderson (SDW Vet A) +1 lap
48th Damian Cairns (SDW Sen B) +1 lap
66th John Tidyman (SDW Sen B) +1 lap
67th Paul Greer (SDW Vet A) +1 lap
72nd Kieran Fitzpatrick (SDW Sen A) +2 laps
74th Rob Ledger (SDW Vet A) +2 laps
76th Wil Kitcher (SDW Sen B) +2 laps
87th Matt Walsh (SDW Vet B) +2 laps
93rd Tim Hanchett (SDW Vet B) +2 laps
98th Bruce Sandell (SDW Vet A) +2 laps
103rd Neil Couchman (SDW Sen A) +2 laps
109th Charles Dennison (SDW Sen A) +3 laps
114th Julia Hawksworth (SDW Wom A) +3 laps
118th Pip Jenkins (SDW Wom A) +4 laps
120th Lexi Couchman (SDW Wom A) +4 laps
121st Natasha Jarman (SDW Wom A) +4 laps
122nd Steve Archibald (SDW Vet B) +4 laps
Glen races Mountain bikes in the UK National XC Points and Eastern XC Series, Road bikes in the Surrey, South-East and Eastern Leagues, TT in the South East Region and ‘Cross in the LCCA League. He receives personal sponsorship from Helly Hansen and support from The Velo House, Scott Bikes and THE.ÆIGHT.BICYCLE.CØMPANY.
Glen runs The Velo House with Olly and Matt, a coffee shop, workshop and bike shop welcoming all cyclists and even well behaved non-cyclists. We’re based at 5 St.Johns Road, Tunbridge Wells, TN4 9GW – 01892 554 505 – glen@thevelohouse.com.