Member contacts: Mick Style and Ed Rollason
Cyclo-Cross is a great introduction to competitive cycling, and great if you like getting muddy. Mick Style was the winner of the North West Vets League this year and is a great person to talk to about Cyclo-Cross. He has written a guide below to get you started.
The laps are short, and Senior races usually last an hour. It's also a great sport to get children involved in cycling, as there are separate shorter races for under 12s and under 16s.
Cyclo-Cross is great winter conditioning, and great for bike handling. You may have to dismount/re-mount a few times per lap. A Cyclo-Cross bike is not essential to take part, it is possible to enter with a mountain bike.
Where and when
The courses are often in parks, less than one hour's drive away. Race start-times vary, Seniors range 12:00 - 14:30. Some parks are difficult to find, so find out exactly where the race is being held, and get there early for sign-on, warming up and pre-riding the course if permitted.
How to enter
The events are cheap to enter - typically around £9 and you can enter on the day. If you don't have a BC licence you will need to pay an additional £3 and this money goes straight to British Cycling. The way the League works is everyone gets points and your best eleven results from the fifteen League events count towards your final League position.
North West League Events List
Sat 18th Sep : Red Rose Olympic Cross/North West League Round 1, Avenham Park Pavilion, Preston
A double-header weekend to kick off the NW season! The first time at this new Cross venue which hosted ‘Rock in the Park’ last year featuring one ahmm...Peter Andre...oh well. Not much of a rider, mind you, legs like Fabian I hear Rach....
Sun 19th Sep : Borrowdale Show, North West Round 2, Borrowdale, near Keswick
An awesome setting at Borrowdale Show where, if you’re brave, you can show off your shaved pins to the local starved collies! Not a classic course but tough enough with some interesting dry stone wall obstacles only encountered elsewhere at the 3 Peaks. Sunny last year, but remember Borrowdale is officially the ‘wettest place’ in England so be warned! Still not tired? Try a bit of Cumbrian wrestling so long as you have the baby-grow outfit! A bit of a drive.
Sun 26th Sep : Three Peaks Cyclo-Cross, Helwith Bridge
The grand old dame, the hardest and longest Cross course in the World. Rightly eulogised as epic in weather, effort and views. Nuff said. If you’ve not already entered, plan for 2011.
Sun 3rd Oct : Horwich CC Cross, North West league Round 3, Leverhulme Park, Bolton
Horwich always run an excellent promotion here – always a great course for starters and grizzly experienced crossistas alike. Expect hard, fast racing if it’s dry....might tempt the roadies/testers in for a ride? Good for spectating too.
Sat 9th Oct : Sportcity Cross/North West League Round 4, Clayton Vale Park, Manchester
Very local to central Manchester, an improving course which has a good set of steps as a run-up and some interesting swoops through the woodland. Beware ‘lending' your trusty steed to the restless natives for a ‘quick spin’. First Saturday race so beers tonight!
Sun 17th Oct : Manchester Wheelers Cross/North West League Rnd 5, Boggart Hole Clough, Blackley, Manchester
Come on everybody! It’s the Wheelers Cross Race! It’ll be great to have loads of Wheelers riding and I’ll need lots of you to marshall. A first class course with a bit of everything, well rated by riders.
Sun 24th Oct : Weaver Valley Cross/North West League Round 6, Pignut Hill, Northwich
The cutest named venue straight out of AA Milne! Fast if it’s dry, a fork clogging course if it’s wet with all those LEAVES! Please avoid ‘poohing’ in the woods as the locals complained about riders’ light reliefs two years ago! Really.
Sat 30th Oct : East Liverpool Wheelers Cross/North West League Round 7, Otterspool Park, Liverpool
And so to Merseyside....twisty, sinuous tracks with awkward roots and the odd half brick...it is Liverpool after all! Features the Muur de Otterspool, as described by cross devotee in crossjunkie.com, a mini cobbled, greasy Flanders climb to test us all.
Sat 6th Nov : Lady of the Manor Cross No. 1/North West League Round 8, Sutton Manor Forestry Area, St Helens
Uh-o! Rim pinch city for those riding 35psi on clinchers! A lot of hard pack tracks. The location is just off the M62 near the lovely Dream sculpture. The fourth Saturday race so some of us crossistas may make it to the Club Run the next day.
Sun 14th Nov : Stadt Moers Cross / North West League Round 9, Stadt Moers Country Park, Whiston
My bogey course, I just never ride well here. Mid-season fatique or training dropped off a bit, I never quite know which! Mix of hard pack and some tricky off-camber slippery turns to test technique.
Sat 20th Nov : Geoff Bewley Memorial Cross / North West League Round 10, Otterspool Park, Liverpool
Return to Liverpool. Always a good, testing course with a couple of run-ups.
Sun 21st Nov : Rhyl Cross/North West league Round 11
Second double header weekend. A new course I hear. North Wales, by the sea. Expect wind.
Sun 28th Nov : Horwich CC Cross, North West league Round 12, Leverhulme Park, Bolton
Missed Leverhulme first time round? Come and enjoy the last few rays of Autumn sunshine as you grind out a result before washing your bike at twilight and heading off home for a well- earned steak!
Sun 5th Dec : North of England Championships, Brockhole, Windermere
A more ridable course promised as we welcome the Yorkshire and North East massif.
Tuesday 28th Dec : Royles Supacross / North West League Round 13, South Park, Macclesfield
Line up against some of the best national riders and burn off your Christmas pud on a fast but tough cross course. Let’s hope the good cakes get wheeled out again.
Sat 8th/Sun 9th : Nationals, Derby
Spectating and/or riding – we should all go and watch on Sunday.
Sun 15th Jan : Lady of the Manor Cross No. 2/North West League Round 14, Sutton Manor Forestry Area, St Helens
Return to no-one’s favourite course. Pedal faster, it’ll be over sooner. Not really, it’ll still be an hour’s race but H’s training advice is sound. Hang around afterwards for chilli, chat, cheering the Season’s winners and losers.
For more information check the British Cycling Cyclo-Cross section or the NWCCA websites:
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/cyx/cyclo_cross_latest_news.asp
http://www.nwcca.org.uk/