CXNE 2024 – Round 5 Kirkley – North Tyneside Riders

The Venue

Many of our riders will be familiar with Kirkley cafe, a popular spot for road cyclists to have a bacon sandwich and a cuppa located just outside of Ponteland. It also being a farm means there is a lot of land that can be used each year for our cyclocross racing.

The conditions in the fields range from bumpy to sloppy mud, very much dependent on the weather in the weeks leading upto the race.

Women’s and Open V50+

The arrival of storm Ashley meant that the predicted weather was certainly gloomy, with heavy rain forecast along with high winds. It wasn’t a race I was looking forward to for this reason, still traumatised by a similar forecast at Gatshead in 2021.

Arriving at Kirkley there was some rain around, although not as heavy as I was expecting. I went to the signon tenant and got my number and sat in the car for a bit whilst getting sorted and hoping that the rain may die down a little more.

The practice lap was surprising, the whole course was rideable, no need to get off and run any sections. There were only 2 difficult sections of the course, one where it was incredibly muddy and hard to ride along but I rode this twice during practice, the other a nasty descent which I rode once and then took a heavy tumble the second time round.

First race off at 10:30 was the Junior Open, Women and V50+ Open category. Everyone lines up and gets gridded based on average points during the season so far. This time we had 2 NTR women taking part, the V50+ is always the largest field of the day.

We line up and take off our rain coats and warm clothing ready for the starting whistle.

During the race the course was slippy, it was still raining but nowhere near as heavily as expected and the wind was still relativley low compared to earlier expectations. I did 4 laps plus the shortened out lap, averaging 9-ish minutes per lap during the race.

The previous section I had been riding was getting more cut up as the race went on so I unfortunatley had a bit of a fall in the mud there, as the wheel just went from under me. Having got back on my bike and continued and then looking down realised I had left my wahoo bike computer behind in the mud. Luckily there were some kids there who had picked it up for me and half a lap or so later they appeared at the side of the course and were able to hand it back to me (many thanks).

After the race I washed myself down with a cloth and some water to remove as much mud from me as I could before getting changed and into some non cycling kit so I could have a hot drink, sandwich and cake before the start of the Open V40/ Senior race this afternoon. This did unfortunatley mean I missed the U16’s racing which is usually a great watch.

Open V40 / Senior Race

The rain stopped and the sun came out by mid afternoon, this did mean that the earlier wet mud had started to turn to peanut butter for those riding in the afternoons racing.

NTR had 3 riders in this race, Dan Richardson, Dan Robinson and Michael Lee with the latter being in the V40 category. Typically the race lasts between 50-60 minutes depending on the leaders timing and where you sit with regards to the race leader.

I walked around the course spectating, the same places that were tricky for this mornings race were just as technical this afternoon and were fun to watch for all that stayed to spectate.

Dan Richardson started his first lap with a tumble down the tricky descent that I had earlier fallen on. Dan Robinson somehow statyed upright as it looked like he would also catch the safety nettting and come off. Michael Lee went with a different technique of both feet unclipped which seemed to work for him as I didn’t see him take a tumble.

Overall the course did dry out a bit as the afternoon went on, some bits got easier but the mud certainly thickened, poor Dan Robinson removed at least 1kg from his bike!

Some lovely photos from yesterday and the photo of Louis from South Shields Velo is too good not to share as unfortunatley I didn’t get mine or Dan’s tumble on camera.