Bardney Cyclocross

This would be the very last event in the Lincs Cyclocross League and is their Handicap race. This meant that today would be more about the performance and less about the finishing position.

It was cold, and there had been a hard frost the night before, the recent bad winds had abated though and it was a pretty windless day on Bardney Fen !

There must have been less than 30 of us Vets that made the trip to Bardney and again I found myself gridded onto the fourth row - not that it makes much difference because I quickly fell backward places during the opening sprint - and then I started to make them back up again, so that was OK.

The course is split into two halves really - a faster first half which is out into flatland and a quick up and down a bank to contend with, and a second half of more technical lumpy ground, with some off camber work and a down and up ditch effort.

Lap 1 saw me learn the course and lap two saw me moving up the field a little bit. Lap three was my best lap and I fought tooth and nail with a fella from Arrow Cycles. There were two lads in front of us, but neither of us worked together and as a result never got close enough to them.

I started to fade on lap four , but again managed to avoid being lapped which meant that I had lap 5 to attend to. I was literally hanging out of my arse on this last lap (technical term), but enjoying it at the same time. That was it, the last race of the season and nine months of doing other stuff until it starts again in September.