XC Racer Blog Post

Trail Break CX Sportive

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BY: Louise Robinson

Published: 26th January, 2015


And so for something completely different.

In an attempt to inject some enthusiasm into my quite frankly lackluster riding of late I signed myself up for the Trail Break CX Sportive. A bit of a change from the usual XC races, but I have not been race fit for some time and winter training just grinds me down. I needed some motivation to ride and there is nothing like handing over your hard-earned cash to motivate you out of bed on a cold Sunday morning.



Trail Break have been running events for the best part of the last 20 years and they have the principles well worked out. The event started from a school in Woodcote, providing somewhere warm to shelter and proper toilets. The CX sportive is a relatively recent addition to their program, being a way-marked mixture of road, bridal way and single track. It's a great idea for a winter event, limiting the amount of mud that needs to be slogged through whilst keeping the interest factor going. I dragged along my long suffering camera man Jason, and we both rode CX bikes but as we pulled up for the start there was everything from full on road bikes to big bouncy trail bikes. It was going to be really interesting to see what bikes faired best.



Everyone started between 8.30am and 9.30am, with riders set off every 10 minutes or so, as and when they were ready. There were 40, 60 or 80K options with two feed stations on the way round. The route was very well marked with signs and each rider was also given a paper map, plus all pre-entries were sent a downloadable GPX file of the route. We started with a group of about 15 and there was the inevitable skirmish as we all piled out on the road. The nice thing about riding a CX bike on the road (when you are used to a mountain bike) is that it positively flies uphill. The major disadvantage is descending on broken farm tracks and rocky single-track when it shakes your fillings out. In the group we started with there was a fairly equal mix of cross and mountain bikes. For the first 50 minutes of riding we kept ping ponging each other with the cross bikes ahead on the hills and the mountain bikes overtaking on the downhill off road sections. It was not until the second major climb of the day that we put daylight between us and the mountain bikers. I find the sportive mentality a bit strange here. It's not a race, but everyone wants to beat everyone else?!! It's very easy to get caught up in the moment but you have to remember that a lot of the other riders are newcomers and as the event is held on public roads and bridleways the other users have just as much right to be there as you do. I did feel a bit sorry for a couple of rather peeved looking horse riders who had obviously been overtaken by literally hundreds of (hopefully very polite) cyclists.


This photo is completely deceptive - this track was practically vertical I swear!

Thankfully, the temperature remained on the warm side of freezing and there was very little ice. The roads would have been treacherous had it been colder and as it was we saw at least one ambulance on the way round, scooping up a fallen rider (not sure if it was the result of ice or just a pure accident). The first feed station was at about 19 miles in (if you rode the long route, less if you have taken the shorter route cut though). Wiggle energy drink, gels and bars were available on a help yourself basis along with the essential flapjack and bananas. In the name of thorough product testing I trialed the coconut and the apple energy bars and have to say I was very impressed. The apple bar was a bit artificial but the coconut flavor was much better and the texture was really good. Despite the cold (which can turn some energy bars into concrete) these were really easy to eat.


Feedzone!

The off road sections got muddier as the course went on. The final bridal way was pure slurry and really energy sapping to ride. Over the 80K we clocked up 1122m of climbing from seven major climbs. Most of the climbing was on the road and most of the descending off-road, but there were a couple of cheeky off-road climbs thrown in the make all the CX bikes wish they had mountain bike gear ratio's. The final consensus on what bike worked best? With the amount of road riding on this course, the CX bike was defiantly the way to go. The off-road sections would have been carnage on a road bike and the blacktop just plain tedious on a mountain bike. But having the option to ride whatever bike you had defiantly opened up the event to the biggest number of people and feedback over a hot bowl of chili at the end was highly positive.


Definitely a little mucky in places - Jason's new bike got a post ride picture (no picture of me you should note!)

Thanks to everyone involved in putting on a great event.






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Louise
 

Louise Robinson

Mum, Pharmacist and XCracer Team Rider

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This blog post was written by a third party and their views do not necessarily reflect the views of XCRacer.com

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