BUCS CX Championships 2011

Well, it has been our nemesis for a few years and 2011 proved no different, with Leeds placing 5th in the team competition, represented by Mike Jones in 12th, Tom Bell in 13th, Henry Stam in 26th and John Guly in 28th.

With Mike and Tom both on Mountain Bikes, little could be done to hold the pace of the leaders who were on the right equipment and in shape from a season of CX racing. The course proved to be incredibly slippery in the corners (Mike having a major slide and subsequent stack on Lap 2) and with a huge banking in the middle, it made the race very slow going (especially for Tom who lost about 45 seconds on one lap through shoddy banking technique!). In addition, towards the bottom of the course were two long, flat, open drags, giving those riding a CX bike even more of an advantage over the struggling MTBers.

Feelings of nausea and utterances like "I'm never racing cyclocross again" were in plentiful supply post-race, but be assured there will be some sort of representation there next season!

On the plus side, we are pleased with how training is going and form is building for the MTB championships and intend to go all the way in Wales. We used this race as training and will show the other Universities how "real" off-road riding goes down.

Below are a few team shots from yesterday's race. Enjoy.