After last weeks race at an icy Herne Hill it was great to return to good old slippy
mud. The snow and ice had all but disappeared and temperatures were thankfully
well above zero. Today’s starters were Paul A, Jel U, Steve B, Andy D and yours
truly. Footscray Meadows is one of the oldest, and longest cross circuits on the
calendar (laps 10min +) and, as the organisers Gemini stated, it was ‘a splendid test
of who consumed the most mince pies’ over the Christmas period.
From the off it was obvious that Paul had consumed the least amount of pies over
the Xmas break. He quickly moved into the lead and gained a slim advantage over
Steve in the first couple of laps as the usual carnage ensued i.e. 100 + riders all
trying to occupy the same space. Unusually for me I managed to keep in touch with
the pair of them although they had a lead of 25m or so.
The next couple of laps saw Paul open up a small gap on Steve, and me catch and
pass Steve. After approx 45 mins of hard slog from all of us I’d managed to catch and
latch onto Pauls back wheel. He knew where I was likely to try and pass him and was
up out of the saddle at every opportunity to defend the Seeds lead! With approx 10
mins to go Steve had reduced the deficit and was now making ground on the pair of
us; rather ominously I clocked Jel on an out and back section approx a minute or so
back.
With 400m to go to the end of the penultimate lap, (the last lap bell was ringing), the
three leaders came hurtling past us already sprinting for the line; this effectively
meant that we now only had 400m to go to the finish line. Paul was up out of the
saddle again and maintained his race long lead to take Seeds top honours with me a
close second and Steve a few second behind in third. Jel was next in followed by a
smiling Andy who seems to be enjoying his foray into the world of cross.
Unfortunately the official results are currently screwed up for me Paul and Steve,
probably something to do with the fact that we were caught on the line by the
leaders. Out of 100 + finishers the Seeds positions are quoted as follows: -
42 Gel Utting – Seeds V
68 Andy Dumbleton Seeds S
90 Paul Atkinson Seeds V
92 Kevin Perkins Seeds V
93 Steve Blackmore Seeds V
We have, of course, lodged and official complaint and await a return to our rightful
positions in the 30’s : )
We had fantastic support at this race being so close to home. Thanks to Ali, (and her
soup kitchen), Karen, Jane & Joseph and all the others who turned up to give vocal
encouragement.
