Cyclocross - CX and SSCX races and training

Just read some tweets about it, and apparently it was too dangerous/slippery etc.

Slipping and falling in the mud is fun. Slipping and falling on concrete can >>>>>>>>>>>>

Still, shame it went this way. I expect plenty of people put hard work into it* and they must feel a bit gutted now :-(

*Organisers and racers alike.

Yes. And good they cancelled before somebody got hurt for real.

If the weather hadn't of been such a pig today that could have worked well.

Real Gutted for the organisers and everyone who gave their time to help put it together :(

The transition from outdoors to in was brutal. So many kids taking a tumble. The exit was even worse apparently.

Which is a pity as it looked like fun dodging around pillars and doorways.

Anybody from N22 area going to race Incredible Cross tomorrow? Fancy going together??
I am not really sure about how to figure out about bringing my bike on the train and seeing whether it is overground or underground.

Take the train from Alexandra Palace or next station where you are to Kings Cross. Take Thameslink to Mitcham Junction. Bikes on these allowed. Should be trains even on a Sunday. Good schlepp.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/static/documents/content/Thameslink_route_map.pdf

Easy money. Thank you very much <3

Good: Learnt today that continental cyclocross speed tyres at low pressure are exceedingly grippy over various wet man made surfaces. Bad: this knowledge is probably redundant as won't race that combination of conditions/surfaces again.

The weather was not the problem, nor was tyre choices. Riders can deal with that.
What they can't deal with is obstacles collapsing underneath them. And that is no one's fault but Rapha's.

For the record, I wasn't feeling bad, so probably would've won today.
Can I take the win?
In going to whatever the general consensus is. Despite me being a drunk mess in a pub right now.

Completely agree.. The last minute building and complete lack of testing of the obstacles could have been a lot worse.. even it they hadnt collasped you can see they're design hasnt been guided by experienced riders with todays racers in mind

Yes.

Love this;

https://www.facebook.com/CentralCXLeague/posts/951653454916586

Obstacles collapsing is unquestionbly unacceptable, I hope everyone who fell is ok.

Asking design students to build structurally sound cross obstacles may have been optimistic in hindsight.

I hope every person complaining about the organisation goes out to create/run a race themselves.

Poor choice of venue, concept and scheduling. Safe overtaking was next to impossible on the vast majority of the course. Half of the obstacles were pointless, half plain dangerous. Blaming rain in a cyclocross race, in November, is crazy.

Shame as Alexandra Palace was one of my favourite races of the last few years, and the races in Yorkshire looked great too. Here's hoping it returns in a more traditional format next year.

I don't see how the two are linked..

They're not, hence being two separate paragraphs (but still about the same event)

this x 100

Ok then I might have misinterpreted what you were trying to say..
Your first comment is definitely true, from what I heard from the women's race, a big crash was the direct result of one of the obstacles coming apart. The front rider caught her wheel on a protruding edge and went down pretty bad.

I like that!

Indeed. Not many others racing?

Photos from the central league suggest it was reasonably well turned out. Conditions look...like the kind of conditions where sorting your kit out afterwards takes twice as long as the race itself.

In contrast, incredibly cross was fucking awesome. Despite breaking my chain and having to run the last 2 miles to get there, then proceeding to roll my tub on lap 1 I had a great time. Props to the organisers. Seriously fun event.

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