Andy Seltzer writes…
After a break from cyclo cross for a couple of weeks, I was in for a bit of a rude awakening on Sunday, after my early races in the balmy Indian Summer of early October when I arrived at Brighton’s Stanmer Park the bighting head wind had reduced the temperature to nearly freezing.
For those on the ESCA reliability ride luck had been on their side and the forecasted wet rain had held off, as I readied myself for the 13.00 start I and 84 other riders hoped we would be as lucky.
The switch from Wild Park to Stanmer Park has proved to be a popular one, with a testing climb and a white knuckle grin inducing descent.
This was going to be a race of two halves the dry one and the wet one. After a dry period of several days the ground was very firm and predictable or it was for the first half hour and then the heavens opened making the big descent very interesting.
Despite the change in the weather I had one of my best races of the season getting stuck into a number of race long battles with a couple of other veterans whilst we managed to distance our selves from another group of riders. Alas the race was a lap to long for me as the other two veterans got the better of me on the last lap.
In the end I was 27th overall and 7th veteran.
The race winner Darren Barclay Team Artic.
Top Veteran: Doug Fox Crawley Wheelers.
