Cyclocross is getting pretty big here in Australia, only two years ago there was nothing to sate a hungry crossers appetite. You could ride a cross bike in an MTB event or put slicks on and do a road race but nothing truly "cross like". Now, in 2012 we have the inaugural National Cyclocross Series. A six round series taking in the cross scene from Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney. We are starting to get a few followers of this crazy cross thing, cool.
The first two rounds of the series were in Melbourne, Saturday and round #1 would be "Cross Melburn". This was held at the Melbourne Go Cart Centre in Port Melbourne organised by the fine folk at Trailmix and Full Gas Promotions. This was a brand new location for Cyclocross in Melbourne, held on and off the go kart track, it made for a fun and tough course.
Now THAT looks fun.
Cyclocross is meant to be a tough sport, it was originally intended as a form of cross training for professional cyclists to stay fit in their off season. So all cyclocross courses are a challenge , not only physically but technically and mentally as well. You really do need to be a good all rounder to do well at this sport. Seeing as how this course was around a motor racing track they really made the most of the terrain available. At the end of a fast straight on a track like this they have gravel traps to slow the cars down in the event of an off track excursion. So of course they sent the track through as many of these gravel traps as possible.... The gravel in these traps was like pea gravel, almost round, this meant that there was never a firm line through it. The gravel would simply slide back down to fill the divot your tyre had just made, this made riding through it almost impossible.
Gravel trap
It became clear quite quickly that running these sections was faster than riding them.
At the end of the main straight they sent us off track and onto the grass leading into a right hand berm. Good fun. If you took a high enough line through here you could build some momentum for the following gravel trap.
Nice little berm
The fast line through here was up next to the billboard, on the other side of the tyres in the middle of the shot above. You could use gravity to get your speed up and bypass half of the gravel trap usually gaining a couple of positions in the process. This was a very cool course, very different to what I had gotten used to.
Being the first round of the National series they also set a pit up, very Pro.
Practice
There were some obligatory muddy patches.
Yep, muddy.
Line choice.
A lot of the corners were like this one, two line choices. The inside line on the grass is shorter but much tougher while the outside line on the track is longer but much faster.
So, after struggling through the race with a heart rate above 85% of my maximum for 40 minutes or so I ended up finishing in 7th place. Not too shabby, one down from the last race but over a longer duration so at least I didn't lose any positions during the longer race. Lots of fun was had though so that is, as always, the main thing.
I finished the day sore, happy and excited for round two the next day.
Thanks to the guys at Trailmix and Full Gas Promotions for organising this series, you should come along to compete or just to watch the next one. I have been told that it is a great day as a spectator as well. If you are keen to try this out you can follow the above links to enter the next rounds.
- Brad.
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