Rapha SuperCross - Ally Pally

Yesterday I undertook my second cyclocross race (the first one being exactly a year ago!) I'm a little slow on the development of my cyclocross riding so I am to up the anti this year and fly the VCM flag a little more in the South whilst doing so. 

On arrival, the normal 'walk the route' was undertaken with Phil Moore and Dan Treby. There was no time to ride before the hoards of juniors started their race - there were about 30-40 of them, Islabikes occupying over 70% of the bikes ridden. Inspiring to see.

We were pleasantly surprised to see that a lot of the last two years heavily climbing routes had been replaced with a lot more grassy sections and a dizzy-spell inducing spiral section. There was a nice downhill through the woods but other than that there was a lot of long grass with a couple of gravel sections, most of which was into a headwind.

There were approx 11 Vet Women on the start line and I was honoured to be gridded, albeit last before the other ladies joined us. 

I started well but soon over taken by 3 of the more experienced ladies, I was then over taken by the 28 year old I was chatting to on the start line (who confessed to being crap at riding off road - good to know) so I managed to whip her butt on the downhill section and didn't see her again. I overtook one other girl on the last lap which brought me in 6th overall. Not too shabby I guess but annoyingly I'd only just managed to warm up on the last lap. 

My plan is to find more local races and up my game a little. I'm just waiting for my new Condor Bivio-x to be built which will be ready for Sam Alison's annual Chilli Cross mid November, oh and my skinsuit of course!

Update: sadly, having checked the results I wasn't sixth but 7th, not happy but hey, that's bike racing for you.