For my 30th birthday, my brilliant husband treated me to a cyclocross bike. I’ve been wanting a go at this for quite a long time, but has such a high entry cost (an entire new bike, pedals, shoes etc). Unwrapping a new bike certainly softened the blow of turning 30, that’s for sure!
After a few weeks of exploring the local bridle-paths and getting lost around my local area, I decided to be brave an enter a race. The cyclocross season was rapidly running out of races for me to enter; however, the Yorkshire Cross Association were race, it wouldn’t count towards the points series or even record the results the best bit… it was fancy dress! Since finishing university I’ve been short on fancy dress occasions!
So off we set for my first race, in fancy dress!
I have to say I was nervous, I didn’t really know how it all worked but everyone was super friendly, and I followed some juniors having a practice lap. I could hear them telling each other how easy the course was, while I was behind, panicking how I was going to get up and down the steep bank – easily as it turns out!!
After a few warm up laps off we set off, it was everyone together, so it was difficult to judge how I was doing, but I just used it to get familiar with racing and got more confident each time up and down the bank. Thankfully there was no dismounted sections, even though I’d spent a full day in the week practising my skills (or lack of!). I seem to finish mid-pack and was so pleased! It was certainly the hardest 30mins and was working at my max for the full time. But I loved it, and I’m determined to do more of it next season, using the summer to work on the skills needed to be able to do harder courses.
