It’s still cyclocross season, and I thought I’d post this short, stylised promo video shot and edited by Corinne Walder. It’s just an intro to the sport, so nothing groundbreaking for diehards, but it does feature some soundbites from two fresh-faced Scots on the British Cycling academy, Kenta Gallagher and Grant Ferguson.
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PRODUCED BY CORINNE WALDER. MUSIC : NIRVANA – BLEW
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VC Moulin encompass all cycling disciplines (I believe) but they are known for cyclocross. There’s something great about their jersey with its nod to the Belgian national colours and the powerful logo.
Pic by Brian McArdle on flickr.
We’re almost at the end of the cross season in Scotland and there has been lots going on, some great races, but alas I have too been strapped for time to do the scene justice. The final two races at Mull are coming up next weekend.
Check out Dave Hamill and John McComisky’s Dig In Mate series of videos for a typically Scottish, light-hearted (and sometimes rude) look at some of the races. These also really deserve a separate post… they are great.
I did a minimal preview of the CX champs at Irvine. Although I try not to do too much news and race reporting (it’s hard work to keep up and other places do it better), I thought I should honour some of the champions.
There are full results on the Scottish Cyclocross website.
Ross Creber won the senior mens for his new 2011 team CyclePremier.com – Metaltek, pursued by Endura’s Davie Lines. Thanks martysavalas aka naegears on twitter for the cc attribution on several of these pics. Click through to flickr for a full set.
Senior women’s winner was Katy Winton of Glentress Riders. Good race from a young rider, beating several seniors. With apologies to Hannah Ferguson, sister of junior winner Grant, who I previously misidentified.
Eileen Roe, who rode in the Commonwealth games took silver in the ladies category. Pic from the Leslie Bike Shop / Right Move Windows twitter.
Vets podium was a 1-2-3 for Leslie Bike Shop with Gary Macrae winning and John McCaffrey and Brendan Roe rounding out the medals. A good day for the Roes.
Junior Mens winner was Grant Ferguson of Dooley’s RT. Grant races mountain bikes under the BC Development programme, and has ridden stage races abroad for Scotland too. Pic by martysavalas on flickr.
Silver was Stuart McCluskey also of Leslie Bike Shop. A good day for their team.
I will endeavour to cover the youth riders in another post.
The Scottish cyclocross championships are this Sunday 23rd January at Irvine Beachpark. For all the info go to Scottish Cyclocross.
Who are the favourites? Hardie, Lines, Fraser-Moodie, Wardman, or maybe Creber?
Pic by Andy Wardman, on martysavalas’ flickr.
There have been so many good pictures of cycling in this week’s snowy conditions that I dedicated posts to mountain biking and urban cycling.
The cyclocross bike is a good machine for snowy conditions, as mountain bike suspension can soak up pedal strokes and spring. A good rigid cross bike can sometimes blast through snowy conditions. And cyclocross racing is a winter sport – it doesn’t stop for snow!
Terence McMahon testing the clearance of the cantilevers to the limit.
Not a cycling picture as such, but couldn’t help including this lovely shot of the Kirklee Bridge on the Kelvin Walkway in Glasgow. Pic: Terence McMahon
Cyclocross racing took place in Glasgow’s Kings Park despite the conditions. A cold day for Steve Macluskie, who marshalled. Full set on flickr.
Graeme Warren aka pixelmix on flickr also shot a great set from the race, including this one of a VC Moulin rider – a club that specialises in CX.
Craig Hardie‘s weapon of choice is the CX bike, being one of the best racers in the country. Here he used it for a trip to the sports centre in his native Fife.
Road racer Craig Adams of Falkirk BC takes his crosser out in the Standburn/Avonbridge area.
I saw some tweets today from perennial contender Craig Hardie and Scottish cyclocross stalwart Davie Graham and Brian aka @bazzargh brought to my attention some proposed rule changes to cyclocross racing that are going to really shake things up for the 2011 season.
There’s a rule coming in that courses have to be a minimum of 3m wide for Cat A/B and 2m wide for Cat C. The scottish cross series will apparently lose about 2/3 of their courses if this is enforced. Seemingly, organising clubs have standing to object, but need to do so by Monday 12th Oct, hence the need to get the word out.
Here’s a pic of the Auchentoshan course by Glasgow United’s Steven Turbitt:
The path is less than 2m wide there, but further back you can see that it’s constricted by trees. This is part of the character of the
Scottish CX series, there are sections of narrow singletrack at courses around the country.
And you can’t widen this:
Some background: here’s the announcement by British Cycling. Brian couldn’t find one from Scottish Cycling but presumably that was sent out to clubs.
The relevant bit from the cyclocross rulebook (rule 9.1) states:
In Premier, A and B category races the minimum width of the course shall be 3 metres. In lower category races, where this cannot be achieved for the entire course, the minimum width shall be 2 metres. In all races the course shall incorporate a racing line sufficiently broad to allow safe overtaking.
The concerns of Scottish Cyclocross are expressed in this blog post, which states that the proposal, will be put to the vote at the SC AGM in November. If you are a club member, you have until Monday to object to this proposal on the proper forms. It is unclear how Scottish Cyclocross members/race licence holders (who may not be BC/SC members) can object.
This is the second of two awesome off-road videos I found the other week. (the first being Steven Smith in Mine Woods) This time it’s Andy Wardman of Velo Club Moulin, riding a Peebles trail on his CX bike. I’m not sure ‘ripping up the trail’ is the right phrase- he attacks it with an impressive smoothness that is a pleasure to watch. You’d be forgiven for thinking he was on a full-suspension MTB. The hop onto and off the ‘log o doom’ is a highlight.
Velo Club Moulin is a cycling club based around Pitlochry and is frequently seen in cyclocross races and mountain bike enduros throughout Scotland, although most cycling disciplines are covered.
Local trails ala cx from Andy Wardman on Vimeo.
The Edinburgh Bicycle Co-operative‘s winter catalogue popped through the door last week and I enjoyed thumbing through it, as I have done ever since I was into cycling. Alas, in these tough times there is more to covet than to earmark in the catalogue, despite the best efforts of EBC- the catalogue is supplied with a set of stickers to highlight desirable Christmas items.
The one item that stood out to me was the Genesis Croix de Fer- a cyclocross bike with disc brakes.
The thing about the Croix de Fer is that it manages to be several different bikes all in one. Everyday commuter, weekend road bike, winter trainer, summer tourer; on and off road – put simply, the Genesis ‘Iron Cross’ ticks more boxes than any other bike I know of. …I’d seriously recommend to anyone who could really do with five bikes but only has room for 1 or 2.
At the moment I have four bikes: a summer road/race bike, a winter road/commuting bike, a city/hybrid and a hardtail MTB. Despite the Two Johns’ mantra: you can never have too many bikes in the garage, my shed is full.
With a set of mudguards, the Croix de Fer would replace my winter road/commuter my the city/hybrid bikes, and give me the option of racing cyclocross on a fit-for-purpose machine. Which might help my performance.
In the tradition of the Velocast, this is my pick of the week. Now, where did I put that spare £999.99 that was lying around?
112 riders started the Scottish Cyclocross series, round 1 in Plean Country Park on Sunday. That’s a record. The frantic start can be seen in the first few minutes of this video:
That’s me in the blue Stirling jersey, with my wee support team cheering me on (in green).
I was taking part in my first cyclocross race and found the intensity pretty tough. I finished 58th of 101 finishers, lapped twice. Pretty pleased with that though. Not pleased with the following image however!
A mountain bike is not the de rigeur equipment for this kind of race but it is allowed in Scottish cyclocross. The weight of my bike and the tyre size slowed me down on the climbs and the flats but the suspension kicked in on the downhills and the technical bits and I noticed myself catching the ‘real cyclocrossers’.
The race was won by James Fraser Moodie (aka Jaz Fraz Moodie), with Paul McNally 2nd, Craig Hardie 3rd and Kenta Gallagher 4th.
Race report from British Cycling here.
Full lap video available to any real enthusiasts who are interested:
