Tag Archives: cyclocross

cyclo-cross race report – numbat cup race 01

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Cyclo-cross race report by Daniel Mah.

20160522_132724After watching the first cyclo-cross race at the showgrounds, Dad made me do the next race. I didn’t want to do it, but Dad nagged me all week.  My brother was going to a birthday party on the same day, so it would only be Dad and I at the race.

I got a new bike for Christmas which was a lot bigger than my last bike, so it would be easier to ride over obstacles.  We packed the bikes up into the car and headed out to Fishmarket Reserve in Guilford.  I was wearing my SPR jersey, so Dad could easily see me on the course.

There were about 30 other kids in the race ranging from big kids on cyclo-cross bikes to very little kids on balance bikes. I knew that Alex, CJ, Jehan and Riyani were also in the race.

20160522_134235We started a warm-up lap, but I only got 3 seconds before all the kids were called to the start line.  The course was marked out by tape strung between plastic poles which guided us between trees and through obstacles.  The kid’s course was a lot shorter than the adult’s course and the race only went for 20 minutes.

On the first lap I discovered that the course ran through a very large, sticky mud puddle.  My bike got stuck in the mud and I fell over and was covered in mud.  When I tried to get my bike moving, my foot got stuck in the mud and it sucked my shoe off.  I had to walk through the mud in my socks to get the bike.  I wanted to quit the race, but I told myself that “I can do this”.  Dad helped me get my shoe back on and I started racing again.

20160522_133816The course ran past the edge of the river and if you took the corner too fast, you could end up crashing into the water.  There was sections of thick sand on the course that made it hard to ride through.  I had to stand up on the pedals and push hard to make it through.  There were other sections of easier mud for us to ride through, but it made my tyres heavy with mud.

After the first lap I changed to the number 1 gear on the front and number 3 on the back which made it a lot easier to ride.  20 minutes is a long time to be racing but I managed to finish 5 laps of the course.  Each lap I had to get off and push my bike through the thick mud which meant that my shoes also clogged up with mud.

20160522_133942By the end of the 20 minutes, I was exhausted and ready to get off the bike.  It was a lot of fun being able to splash through the mud and ride with my friends.  Dad then did his race while I got to play at the playground and on our bikes.  Dad’s race was even messier and he finished totally covered in mud.  We had to clean ourselves and our bikes up before we could get back in the car.

There are another 7 races between now and September in and around Perth with races for all abilities.  We should be all going to the next race in June at Victoria Park.

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Super Westige Cyclocross race report – Katheryn Dines

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cyclo 01I am interested in cyclocross as a way to have fun and improve my technical skills without having to get a mountain bike. So when I saw the blog post advertising the “Super Westige” cyclocross event, with the option of a day license, I was intrigued.  I could, in theory, do this race on a road bike. A quick email to the organiser, Greg Merison, got a friendly response. Yes, I could do it on my road bike, even on skinny tyres. There would be no carrying of the bike required, I could push it in a difficult spot or lift it over a barrier. The women’s race was 30 minutes. How bad could it be?

I did no extra preparation for the event, apart from training the kids to cheer, we covered that in depth on Friday 🙂

Sunday was beautiful weather, how refreshing to set off at the civilised time of 1pm for the race! The lap-based race meant the kids and family could easily watch.

Success Hill in Bassendean is a lovely treed reserve on the river. The kids made a beeline for the playground. The two decent grassed hills on the left and right were covered with red and white tape and course markers. I could see a few people riding the route already, so once I registered I did too.

It looked confusing but once on course there were plenty of small arrow markers to follow. The compact course was cleverly laid out to make the most of the hills. There were switch backs, barriers, and some long turns through the sand! There was also a sandy track through the bush and back. The sand was challenging, quite a few places I had to put a foot down or hop off and push. I also knew it would be hard to get to the top of the hills as my bike has quite high gears, and it was so. So there would be plenty of hopping on and off for me!cyclo 03

I had let my tyres down to about 80psi, after my practice lap an older guy squeezed the tyres and muttered “You’ll want to go lower than that!” So I let down a bit more, maybe to 50.

Men’s B grade went first, then the women were lining up. 6 women, 5 sets of knobbly tyres. Gulp.  I think I was fourth to the first corner, then up the hill, over a barrier. Switchbacks down the hill. A longer straight then to the trees at the front of the park. Lots of sand, then more switchbacks, then up the hill. A very long, fast descent straight into a sand bath. (Luckily on my practice run I had been right behind someone who knew what they were doing, I followed his line then and repeated that for each lap, and got through ok). Up the next hill, push to the top (!), then into the bush section. It was very sandy here so I had to push and ride. Finally back to grass. Two barriers in a row, uphill switchbacks, which I had not succeeded in the practice run but made it through during the race (!) then past the commentary box…

Repeat 4 times!

It was fast, furious action. I later read on Wikipedia that each section is only a few seconds long, and the idea is to constantly change speed, direction, surface, technique, uphill/downhill etc. That is an excellent description. It was like no other race I have ever done. It was constantly changing, I was constantly mounting and dismounting, going up, going down. It was a pretty challenging aerobic workout, and a challenging mental one too.

cyclo 02The good things were that I got much better at going through the sand as the laps went on. Each time I tried to find a different line until I found one that felt better. On my last lap I followed a competitor on a mountain bike around a sandy corner that had defeated me until then, and stayed riding the whole way.

My goals were to see what cyclocross is all about, and not injure myself. Tick, tick.

Probably a bit lucky to have dry weather, and I accidentally followed a couple of good lines by other people. The event had a nice atmosphere, about 40 male competitors, 6 women, and plenty of kids. It started on time and seemed well organised.

We stayed a short while to see the Men’s A grade, and it was an eye-opener. Where I had taken wide turns to get through the switchbacks, they were hugging the interior with flicks of their bikes. And the flying dismounts, barrier hops and re-mounts were impressive. Clearly lots of bike skills still to acquire!

Many thanks for Fabian for getting the kids in the car, and Christy, Jason and Danika for coming, and  the fabulous cheer squad of Henry, Rosie and Georgie.cyclo 04

Sweat and Sand CX Round 3 – WA Cyclocross Championships

This Saturday sees the final round of the PMBC Sweat and Sand series cyclocross race. There will also be State Championships up for grabs on the night.
The winner of this will get the State Cyclocross jersey and bragging rights.
Even if your not racing, get down and show your support, to help cyclocross in WA.
When:  Sat 10 Mar (17:00)

Duration:  2 hours

Come Rain or Shine: The race will go on, no matter what the weather.
Meeting Point: Bardon Park, Maylands
Details: We are having our third and final race on the 10th of March at Bardon Park starting at 5pm.

Rego is open: click here

We are hoping to run A, B and C grades, and a Women’s grade too depending on numbers.

A Grade – 40 minutes + 2 laps
B Grade and Women – 30 Minutes + 2 laps
C Grade – 25 Minutes + 1 lap

Course

If you’re not sure what Cyclocross is, “a good description is a bike race mixed with steeplechase. In cyclocross, riders race laps around a short course that usually features some pavement, some dirt, some woods, some steep hills and for good measure, some obstacles thrown in that require riders to dismount, work their way through and then get back on and ride some more.” (Bicycling Magazine)

In a sense, you might think of it as a different type of dirt crit.

Online entries to open(see link above), entires will be the low, low price of just $10. Racing will be open to those with MTBA or CA licenses, an MTBA Day license can be purchased for $20.

Sweat and Sand CX Round 2

Cyclocross racing in Perth made a successful debut at Claremont Showgrounds on December 3rd. Organised by members of the Perth Mountain Bike Club, the series will run for 3 Rounds with 4 grades of racing (A, B and C and Women).

Round 2 of the Sweat and Sand Cyclocross series will be held at Midvale Speeddome this Saturday the 14th with racing starting from 5pm.

Much like the course at Claremont, the Speeddome course will be able to be ridden on any form of bike, as long as it has brakes. Racing will be open to those with MTBA or CA licenses, an MTBA Day license can be purchased for $20.

The courses are really spectator friendly, so if you don’t think you will ride come a long for some fun and bring your cow bell!

Round 3 of the series will be will be at Bardon Park in Maylands on March 10th. The Bardon Park round will double as the WA Cyclocross Championships.

Follow PMBC on Twitter (@perthmtb) or Facebook for regular updates including a course preview video. If that’s not enough to get you to the cyclocross series then just rembember that cyclcross is another great excuse to buy another bike!

A course preview can be found below

Get along and support CX racing in WA.

Sweat & Sand Cyclocross – Claremont Showgrounds

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Perth Mountain Bike Club hosted WA’s inaugural cyclocross race last Saturday. The venue was a novel one, Claremont Showgrounds and the course design showed some imagination. It took in some grass, some asphalt, drains, driveways, gutters and a couple of traditional cyclocross barriers and man-made water feature (sprinkler…). Oh and it was hot. Somewhere in the order of 34 degrees or more.
I think there was about thirty punters in the end on a smattering of actual ‘cross bikes, roadies and mountain bikes. I was amazed at how many ‘cross bikes there were actually… where do they normally get ridden? Never see them out on the trails! My ‘cross steed functions as my commuter so I was well equipped except for my slick tyres. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be bunny-hoping the barriers like some during practice though!
A short and sharp effort would be the order of the day in C grade with fellow SPR alumni’s Scott and Morrison. Morrison was on a roadie and Fairy also gave his roadie it’s first outing since God only knows when!
First lap or so was people spreading out and getting comfortable. Morrison was up there going well but perhap finding the corners tricky on the skinny tyres. A SWCC rider was going well too. When two riders binned it before the barriers on one lap I was dirty that I wasn’t ready for it and couldn’t take full advantage. Lesson learned and I was unclipped early before the obstacles after that. It wasnt long before PMBC racer Ms McAllum went to the front. I stayed with her for a bit before sliding past and having a go out in front. Was fun for bit before I muffed getting clipped in after the short uphill pinch obstacle and Mr SWCC and Morrison passed me. Not long after another rider came through and I was cooked. I thought I might catch him again on the flat grass sections but couldn’t quite get there. As it was I was lucky to hold fourth and not get chicked by Simone who had not dropped too far back. Mr SWCC had streaked away for the win with Morrison second.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to hang about till the other grades were completed but SPR moonlighter Uppers managed 4th in A grade (and the first on a roadie) and by all accounts appeared to have enjoyed himself!
I had a ball and I’m really hoping that PMBC use this course (or something similar) again. It’s definitely something different and a novel style of racing (at least in Oz). Mad props to Greg and Paul from PMBC for organising and running it. I hear the second and third races are on the cards but not till January and probably using the Garvey Park dirt crit course. (Which I don’t mind but prefer this Claremont layout).

Results can be found here.

I had some footage of the race but my camera was pointed too far down so it wasn’t very interesting.  FAIL.  Must try harder. However some other footage from the race organisers can be found here.

Cheers,
Dave

Sand and Sweat Cyclocross Series – Round 1

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The Sand and Sweat Cyclocross series is on.

PMBC are having their first race on the 3rd of December at Claremont Showgrounds, starting at 4pm.

They are hoping to run A, B and C grades, and a Women’s grade too.

A Grade – 45 minutes + 3 laps
B Grade and Women – 30 Minutes + 2 laps
C Grade – 25 Minutes + 1 lap

If you’re not sure what Cyclocross is, a good description is a bike race mixed with steeplechase. In cyclocross, riders race laps around a short course that usually features some pavement, some dirt, some woods, some steep hills and for good measure, some obstacles thrown in that require riders to dismount, work their way through and then get back on and ride some more.

Still not sure? Check out the video below from one of the recent races in Melbourne held by Dirty Deeds.

In a sense, you might think of it as a different type of dirt crit.

Online entries to open soon, entires will be the low, low price of just $10. Racing will be open to those with MTBA or CA licenses, an MTBA Day license can be purchased for $20.

Get along and support this great event. The greater support it gets the better the chance you will see more races like this.