Cross at the Castle SCX Rd8 11/12/10
After all the snow that had fallen round the Fife area it was not looking good for getting to Mull but as there was a partial thaw it looked better. Setting off in the morning looked good and I had decided to take the road from Creiff to Lochearnhead which proved to be a seat of the pants journey being that the road was pure ice in long stretches!
Having negotiated the Ice rink we arrived at the ferry to Mull just in time, but if we had missed the ferry then it would have been disappointing but there was no way I was going to risk life and limb! Would just have got another ferry and raced on Sun.
On to the race
After arriving at the beautiful location that is Glengorm Castle I had a scoot round the snow/ice free course (gulf stream in effect). There was a couple of muddy bits but in general the course was in a pretty dry condition. The course included everything you need with run ups, barriers, fast bits, tech bits and overall a brill course that kept you thinking all the way round :)
After warm up the old legs felt alright but not as fresh as they have been but this is normal for me at the end of a season, no point in having loads left at the end of the season and no racing left!
The race took off with myself, Dan Whitehead and Davie Lines to the front, once into the first laps Davie pushed on and gapped me. I kept Davie in sight and then realised he was coming back to me, once I had caught him I had seen he had a front soft wheel so a change of bike was needed past the pits. We were then together for a while but Dan and as always slow burner James F Moodie was now catching the two of us.
After all the snow that had fallen round the Fife area it was not looking good for getting to Mull but as there was a partial thaw it looked better. Setting off in the morning looked good and I had decided to take the road from Creiff to Lochearnhead which proved to be a seat of the pants journey being that the road was pure ice in long stretches!
Having negotiated the Ice rink we arrived at the ferry to Mull just in time, but if we had missed the ferry then it would have been disappointing but there was no way I was going to risk life and limb! Would just have got another ferry and raced on Sun.
On to the race
After arriving at the beautiful location that is Glengorm Castle I had a scoot round the snow/ice free course (gulf stream in effect). There was a couple of muddy bits but in general the course was in a pretty dry condition. The course included everything you need with run ups, barriers, fast bits, tech bits and overall a brill course that kept you thinking all the way round :)
After warm up the old legs felt alright but not as fresh as they have been but this is normal for me at the end of a season, no point in having loads left at the end of the season and no racing left!
The race took off with myself, Dan Whitehead and Davie Lines to the front, once into the first laps Davie pushed on and gapped me. I kept Davie in sight and then realised he was coming back to me, once I had caught him I had seen he had a front soft wheel so a change of bike was needed past the pits. We were then together for a while but Dan and as always slow burner James F Moodie was now catching the two of us.
Once there was now going to be four at the front Davie had pushed on with Dan chasing, when Dan was going I had felt my right hand shifter starting to feel soft! At this point I was only shifting if essential knowing there was only two laps to go, onto the last lap and going into the uphill section in front of the Castle meant a gear shift and bang the lever broke sticking me in my 13tooth sprocket!At this point I had pushed on but was not going to catch Dan for second with only one gear, my concern now was James getting the last podium spot, I had to run a lot of the bankings that I had been riding and James was catching probably releasing that I had a problem. I managed to get on to the finish straight in front of James and pushed on to finish with just a handful of sec's for third :)
Close racing with a bit of drama at the end for me makes it one of the more memorable races and it was great to see Davie Lines get his first ever Cyclocross win, well done that man :)
Check out the Handlebar cam action from my first lap :)
Cross at the Castle 2010 from Hardie-Bikes.com on Vimeo.
Then it was on to Sun for the last round of the Series to see if I could get round for the last Hurrah!
1st D.Lines
2nd D.Whithead
3rd C.Hardie
Full results: Sat Mull results
Craig.
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