Over to the Costello stadium in Hull for a bit of Wednesday night floodlit Cyclocross then. I have ridden this series before as we lovingly refer to it within the club as the 'Elvis Costello' championship held at the Costellodrome- a series of four March Wednesday evening races on a short but technical course which is roped off around the grass banking of the athletics stadium.Week one had been rained off, but the previous Wednesday had seen a good Wheelers turnout albeit the results of that race had been 'all over the shop' and at the time of writing still appeared to be wrong. Five Wheelers making the trip this week, with numbers dwindled due to illness and injury - it was a nice number and we enjoyed a rib or two of each other pre race. Not a lot of wind, a bit chilly but a very dry course were the conditions of the evening and we all made sure we got in a good sighting lap ahead of the official start.
7.40 and away we went - I got a great start, then promptly threw it away by being far too nice at the first off section by waiting to see if I could ride through it ! lesson learnt - I shall not be doing that again. Spent the first lap trying to pick my way through riders from the near back of the field. Made some good progress then lost my front wheel momentarily and taking a diversion through the tape used to mark off the course.
That was the last mishap, and I then found a good pace and stuck to it, managing to navigate the course quite well (for me). Each lap I could see the Wheeler in front as I desperately tried to get back up to him, some laps getting closer and some laps falling further back. The race felt like it was an hour long and not the mere 40 minutes that it took. By the end, I was tired but did put in one more effort to try and catch my mate - but to no avail. Happy with that, and nice to squeeze in one last cross race. 33/56
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