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Pink Puffer and the CycloX Wars

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BY: Rob Smith

Published: 18th October, 2010


Just under twelve month ago I took part in my first CycloX race, and as the fullness of time had dimmed the pain, and misery on Sunday I was back at Dragon Leisure Centre, Bodmin for another go but this year it was going to be different!
 
I'd prepared, I had some new bling for my hardtail MTB, some carbon ridge forks and I'd managed to scrounged some skinny 1.5 tires off Jay and Maddie so I had a stealthy black carbon ridged bike! In my mind I was kind of glossing over the fact that I'd not raced since the last BMBS round and that the only training I'd done recently was to improve my all round pub fitness.  It was only an hour how hard could it be!
 
Like last year's event, the weather was perfect, bright sunshine and not a cloud in the sky; little rain running up to the event also meant that the corners of the sports field weren't the sodden mess they were last year. 
 
For those new to CycloX, Shame on you! CycloX involves riding a heavy duty chunky-tyred road bike (or mtb bike) around the edge of a sports field and up and down as many obstacles as the organisers can find.  There's always a hill too steep to ride up and it seems that scaffolders always leave a couple of planks on the course and always upright and about 6 feet apart meaning that bikes have to be dismounted and you have to comedy hurdling them both, the planks not the bike,  before remounting. According to my Garmin watch Roy had managed to weave a 1.2 mile lap around two football pitches and the back of some tennis courts with a very handy tarmac start finish straight.  
 
Demonstrating that we riders are all creatures of habit we gridded ourselves in the course direction before being told by the commissaries that they'd included a starting loop to spread the field out and avoid crashes (tell that to the guy who made contact with the straw bale at the start!) and we were going be to starting in the opposite direction! 
With hazy lingering memories from the last time I tried one of these I remained steadfastly at the back, as those deemed worthy were given a girded place, and waited nervously for the off.
 
A hoot from some left over Christmas Cracker toy and we were off; some more dramatically than others (see above).  All I remember of the first three laps was trying not to throw up and keep Maddie Horton in sight. A couple of forced errors and crashes on about lap three saw me disappearing into the undergrowth and giving up the few places I'd managed to maintain and Maddie pulling out a gap.  But on the plus side the thoughts of being sick were replaced with ones like "this is meant to be fun?" - "in what possible way is this fun" - "I need a drink" - "I need my head examined" - "oh here's the hurdles" - "wife's looking, look tough" - "Urg five laps left" - "please someone lap me" - "where's my mummy?" and as I crossed the finish line one lap and over 10 minutes down on winner, Steve Davies (insert your own snooker joke)  "that was great when's the next one?" 
 
So if you've not tried it before give CycloX a go, one hour of anaerobic exercise amongst like minded soul, winter training will never be this hard.




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Rob Smith

new racer trying to fight his way through the masters pack.

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