Category: Blog

It’s the morning of the Maldon Cyclocross, round 5, little misty and slightly cold, proper cyclocross! All kit and bikes in the car the night before, leaves more time in bed! Whoo! 

We arrive at the venue, second there, Dad and I say hello to Carl Stephens from the Basildon CC before signing on. After having a chinwag with Carl, Dad and I move onto the signing on where the Smith family, who run the series, are standing. Of course, I can’t forget about fussing Glen’s Pug, Biscuit. 

Now back at the car, all bikes and ourselves ready to go for a few warm up laps with Harry Bates. The course was fast but a few sloshy parts here and there. 

Shorty after, on the second row with good preparation from my warm up, the whistle blows, and we’re off! I must say, the start from some of the youngsters was impressive, getting the wholeshot by the first corner! 

Now five or so minutes into the race, Anthony Marsh in the lead with Kurt Minter on Anthony’s tail, and myself and Steve Coulson a few meters back, I make a break from Steve once I’ve passed Anthony and Kurt. 

I gain a 30/40 second lead on Steve, I was thinking in my head, “Just need to hold this for another 25 minutes, c’mon, you can do it”!  

My dad, who very kindly stopped to cheer me on during his own race where the course was next to itself. After that, I kept this lead going for at least 20 minutes, I knew I was feeling good. 

Throughout the whole race, I kept an eye on Steve, making sure he wasn’t catching, at one point I was pulling away from Steve but then soon eased up a little for the last lap, so I go for it. Steve obviously read my mind and did the same. But he would have to catch me up by 30 seconds in one lap! But thankfully he didn’t! 

The last corner before the finish, the unexpected happened, yep, I swallowed a fly! This made me choke and almost made me bring my breakfast back up! Sorry for anyone who is reading this while eating their breakfast, lunch or dinner! You shouldn’t be on your phone anyways, you should be with your friends, family or the idiots you work with. 

Getting of subject now, recovered after that incident i can finally put my arms in the air to celebrate, and with the obvious a Dab to go with it. 

Neil Chapman who done a live video on Facebook of the whole race, done a very short interview with myself and steve Coulson. Here is the link to the video; https://www.facebook.com/neil.chapman.507/videos/10154956396443064/

As usual, Gary Sanders, who puts all of the effort into the Maldon & District CC website, took some photos of the race, so thank you for them, they’re some good photos! 

But a big thank you to the Smith Family who put all of their efforts into getting this series up and running! That was a fast, slippery and bumpy course! 

All changed and bikes cleaned with Bradley Hurr’s bike wash. Now time for a recovery Coffee and Cake(s) and for another chinwag with the racers and spectators. 

Well done to all 72 out of 75 people who raced and finished!

Jake Darragh 

HMTB Elite Team 

Last weekend we made the 430 mile trip to Cathkin Braes MTB Track in Glasgow, as used for the Commonwealth Games in 2014, for this year’s National MTB Championships. Due to some roadworks (where I couldn’t actually see any ‘work’ going on just miles of cones!) This took us almost 9 hours. When we finally arrived we had to unload Iain Webb so he could pitch up for the night before driving to Glasgow to where we would stay. A quick shower and a very nice Italian meal and it was time to get some sleep before the course practice on Saturday.

I arrived at the course around 10 to give plenty of time to set up my bike and relax before sign on and course practice opened at 12. Once practice was open myself, Holly Hoy, Nathan Gibson, Alex Dale and Iain set out for a lap, and I immediately knew that I loved the course, as it wasn’t long before we were met by some big rocks and drops (love it) and more technical features than you could ask for. The surface was similar to Hadleigh in the way that it is a gravel type all weather surface with mainly man made rock features so I straight away knew that the Mitas Scylla would be perfect.

After 3 laps of the course managing to ride all of the A lines successfully I felt good, lots of climbing and a great surface mixed with rocks would hopefully suit me well.

So Sunday it was race day. I was gridded 16^th and after making a good start found myself just outside the top 10 going into the first technical section. I lost a few places soon after this but found myself on a group with other riders sitting in around 15^th position before a chain drop on the second lap meant that they got away from me. I managed to catch 2 of the riders from the group in front but 3 had got too much of a gap into me for it to be possible to make up the time. After fighting for the whole race I finished in 18^th place, my highest national finish at the biggest race of the year!

George Crocombe – HMTBC Youth Team and BC Eastern Region Youth Team Member

The weekend of 30th/31st July was one of the best of my racing career so far.  On the Saturday I rode a couple of practice laps of the Hadleigh Park course alongside some of the world’s best, including Nino Schurter and Jolanda Neff.  At the end of my practice I met and had my photo taken with Nino Schurter, Jolanda Neff and Jenny Rissveds.

Sunday morning I arrived at the track early and signed on for my first international race.  At about 9.45 I went down to the start and warmed up whilst waiting to be gridded.  Each rider was introduced to the crowd as they were gridded and as it was my home track I got the loudest cheer.  Then we started, I got a good start and made up several places, although we had to stop at triple trouble due to the number of riders trying to get through.  The pace was fast, which I expected as I was racing some of the best Juniors in the world.  I finished in 28th place out of 35 starters so was pleased with my result.  I was cheered all the way round on every lap by the crowd which made me proud to be racing on my home track for Hadleigh MTB Club.

A big thank you to all those that came along and cheered me on, all the marshals from Hadleigh MTB Club and also to the club sponsors, Hardnutz Helmets and Mitas Tyres.

Robert Staines – HMTBC Youth Team Rider

Quite often you’ll find me standing behind tape, somewhere out on a course shouting (encouraging) things at HMTBC youth and adult race team members. I may also be donning a hi-vis to help run bike racing events as part of HMTBC events team.

However, I decided that it was time to have a go at racing myself after being inspired by other lady racers and riders.  I haven’t got a fancy bike or fancy kit but I do love a challenge and my only aim was to finish!

I decided the Travers Essex Summer Evening Series would be an ideal race series to dip my front wheel into, especially at the Potash Woods venue. The field of entrants aren’t too large or intimidating and thankfully there aren’t too many hills to contend with. An ideal beginners race!

The day was warm and humid but thankfully the forecast of rain held off. I was quite nervous as I registered but everyone was very encouraging which helped ease my fears. With the reccy lap in the bag, it was time to line up on the grid alongside the other female entrants behind a strong field of men, youths and juvenile boys.

 And then I was off. The start involved a 400m long grass track which fed us into the woods on to a nice bit of snaking downhill single track (I liked that bit!). Some features such as logs and mini bomb holes I need more experience or skills training for but I’ve learned what things I need to work on in future coaching sessions so did my best. I was happy riding around under my own steam, although sometimes the crack of a twig behind me soon highlighted that the faster men were about to emerge like a freight train from somewhere behind me. All were very polite and made it clear which side they would pass on as I allowed them space to overtake. The younger riders were also fantastic and all had a word of encouragement for me as they passed me by (well done parents, you’ve raised some lovely young men!).

Overall, I was very happy that I achieved my goal of just finishing a race. To come 3^rd was pleasing and I even got a bit excited seeing my lap times.

Thank you to everyone for the support and thanks again to the organisers, marshals and commissaires for giving up your time. I would highly recommend having a go at a MTB race. You might just surprise yourself!

 by Mel Bates (HMTBC Events Secretary)

Sunday 27th September 2015

It was the final race of the season on a beautiful autumn day. All the Youth team were racing and lots of other members of the club also entered the race at our home track. Going into the race I was lying 3rd in the series only needing a good result on the day to guarantee the 3rd. The decision was taken that as a team we would work together to help me to achieve this goal.

On the morning of the race I went through my usual routine before a race and headed off to the track. The rest of team arrived along with the other club members racing. We went out on a warm up lap and Jake broke a spoke during the lap. He then spent some time replacing the spoke with help from Chris Hyde and our Eastern Region friends, Mike Hoy and Neil Jarvis, whilst the rest of the team warmed up. There was a problem fixing it and it was touch and go whether he would make it to the starting grid. Fortunately it was fixed just in time and we made our way to the grid.

We were gridded and then the race started. We all fought for position on the first lap where gaps between riders started to appear. Connor had a mechanical issue at the end of the first lap and stopped at the pits for help, once fixed he carried on.

At the end of the second lap our positions started to settle, I was in 1st with Jake not too far behind me battling for 3rd. On the third lap I pulled out a lead which I maintained until the finish. I finished in 1st, unfortunately Jake was just beaten on the line and came in 4th with George in 6th, Harry 7th, Wade 9th and Connor 10th. This was my second podium of the season which consolidated my 3rd place in the series.

Hadleigh Mountain Bike Club had their best turn out of riders this season in all categories and all of the riders did very well on what was a very hard course, probably the toughest course of the year.

Thank you to all of our sponsors, Hardnutz, Duck Smart and Rubena Tyres for all the support this season and a special thanks to the MSG team for putting on a great series and to all the great marshals for making these events happen.

Although this race is not part of the Eastern Region series some of us in the Club decided to enter and venture south of the river for a change of scenery.  We arrived at PORC early and set off to find the event village and sign on for the race.  It was a long walk from the car park but we managed to find the event arena and then made the long walk back to collect our bikes and equipment.

We then set off on a practise lap which included some very fast flowing downhills and some very steep uphills.  Once we arrived back in the arena we started to prepare for the race and warm up.  Soon it was time for gridding and Matt called us forward in no particular order with Harry and George on the front row and me on the second row with Wade behind me on the third row in the Youth race.  Behind us Adam was gridded in the Juvenile race.  The race for us was 4 laps long.

The whistle went to start the race and we all started to fight for positions up the first hill.  Groups started to form and gaps started to appear and we settled down for the 4 laps.  I was in the leading group closely followed by George with Wade and Harry behind him.  The race win came down to a sprint finish between me and 2 other riders, I came in third 2 seconds behind the winner and 1 second behind the second placed rider.  Then George came over the line in fifth, Wade in seventh and Harry in tenth.  Adam came 6th in the Juvenile race.

After our race had finished Mason and Daniel raced in the under 9 category.  Daniel came 1st with Mason in 7th place. Overall the day was a success with 2 Hadleigh boys on the podium. 

For the first event over in South East region it was well organised as usual by the Mud Sweat and Gears team.  Thank you to all our sponsors, Duck Smart, Hardnutz and Rubena.  I used the Hyperion tyres for this race and they gripped really well on the wet and slippery grass but still had enough speed on the flat dusty fire roads.

By Robert Staines