Round 8 of the Miche Wessex CX League followed on from the elite UCI CX event the day before at Charlton Leisure Centre, Andover for a pick’n’mix course that literally had a bit of everything. Using some super tricky offcambers around the athletic track, we had banks, a double flight run up, multiple slippy, technical corners, a lap of the local BMX track, the biggest sandpit the league has ever seen and if all that wasn’t enough, the holy grail all course designers and cross riders aspire to… a double bridge that crossed the venue.
The riders tackled the hallowed bridge early on in the race, mostly without incident as they swarmed over the scaffolding planks and it was great to see the U12s get a chance to tackle this imposing obstacle.
Sotonia struck top 5 in the first U8 race with a 4th place for Stanley Paige, Billy Dyer and Rita Howbrook 2nd U10 boy and 6th U10 girl. In the U12s, Eve Carline and Matilda Wilks finished 4th and 5th girls, Cordon Eccleston 3rd U12 boy. Top U14s were Tom Allen and Ella Ridgment, 6th and 7th. George Connell was 18th in a high quality U16 field.
There was another strong performance by Andy Gardiner in the U40 men (5th) with Tom Budden in 9th with his second race of the weekend after 10th place in a very muddy National Trophy in Paignton on Saturday. In the Junior women, Lucy Phillips was victorious and Gemma Wilks also had an awesome race to finish 3rd senior woman.
The v50 men’s race saw success for Jon Hall, 7th v50, Jon Dudley (8th v60) and the final race of the day – the senior men, brought a fine ride from Phil Banks – 12th in a strong field.
Great riding everyone!
Photos: Pitchside Paul
