Haughcross

Raced at Haughcross on Sunday eve, a summer cyclocross race put on by the good folk at Ronde as part of the Aberdour Festival.  Bringing a bike race to a mini festival with live music, beer tent and non cyclists made for a great atmosphere and event - a stroke of genius i'd say.

Heavy legs most of the week following a few big days of trail work (excuses!) had me expecting the race to be a grim, painful affair.  A few laps of the course before the vets/womens/juniors race though had me smiling as I pedalled - the course was a belter - short and compact with lots of turns, flow and rhythm.  A well though out euro-esque circuit with sections to go hard on but also sections to recover, oh and lots of turns of all types, plus 3 sets of uphill barriers a lap.  And a whisky short cut.  

Turns out the course was set out by Helen and Stef Wyman, up supporting the event and having run a successful cross clinic earlier in the day.  Just before the open race start I also had a lovely wee chat about bikes with Roger Hammond. Roger flippin' Hammond!  Almost had to pinch myself!  

A 5-4-3-2-1 start caught me napping a little as the front row jumped on about 2!  Far too gentlemanly into the first turn I ended up quite far back.  I was able to move up though and a few laps in got into a great wee battle with James McCallum, he stronger on the straights, me a little quicker through the turns.  For several laps I resisted the whisky shot short cut, but with Jamesy gaining a good 10secs a lap through here I bit the bullet and got stuck in.. with varying results.  

A while later thanks to more whisky short cutting, good advice from Davy Graham through the muddy bit, careful metering out of effort, surprisingly good legs and some slip sliding through the turns, I was up into 3rd spot!  Not sure quite how this happened but here I stayed 'till the finish.  Craig Hardie took the win with Dave Lines in 2nd.

Thanks to everyone who helped put on the event, it was super.  Ace to see so many VCMers out racing too.

http://jerryballoch.tumblr.com/ pics' capture the spirit of the event nicely, oh and a pretty shonky whisky grab by number 32...

cheers,

andy