Chaos in the MUD

Bingley | Yorkshire #cyclocross Championships 2023

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It’s the second round of the winter Yorkshire cyclocross series arguably the most challenging Series in the UK everyone’s quite good in Yorkshire as well aren’t they after a scorching first round where I’m more or less melted in the heat the mud has finally arrived and the focus moves to worrying about

Whether you will have enough grip are you even a mid pack cross racer if you don’t lose sleep obsessing over the correct combination of tire and tire pressure after all it can make significant difference your lap times your overall position and perhaps how many times you hit the ground the

Question is did I make the right choice and more importantly can rob stay upright welcome back to the channel today is the second round of the Yorkshire winter cyclocross series and today we’re in Bingley yeah it’s been raining the last couple of well the last 24 hours and stuff it’s not raining at

The moment but um you can see behind me there is mud there is a lot of mud to be seen yes it’s a littleit slick especially on this corner here pretty much actually every corner is uh extremely extremely slick and they had some steep Banks and stuff to run up and

Down I’m really excited for it it’s like the first proper kind of cross race of the Season cuz like the first one over at w was uh super hot and I just suffered I nobody’s business today it’s a bit muggy but um it’s a little bit

It’s a lot cooler and uh as I say nice and muddy proper cross let’s get into it so yeah let’s just run through the course um so yeah the course uh today was pretty much very similar to the uh the course that we did for the summer

Series a few months ago this bit was actually not as slick as it looks it was actually uh quite grippy you could actually pedal through all of these corners and uh yeah keep the keep the power down and stuff so it wasn’t actually that

Bad uh but one thing to uh kind of watch out for in these trees and stuff is there’s a few kind of slippy tree roots and stuff especially on the inside of that corner there um I kept trying to tr trying to take a a tighter line to kind

Of stay on the green which is uh a bit more grippy every single corner it seemed to have about four or five six maybe even more different lines that people were taking through um and yeah it didn’t some it didn’t really matter sometimes you can make up a lot of time

Just by taking the right line um other times yeah uh it didn’t really make too much difference um yeah really struggled with this corner in the race um it’s like slightly off camber and then then on the exit there it was really really like um really really slippy and and

Slick so this corner was uh yeah it was pretty much for me it was unridable so yeah getting off running round but I just couldn’t quite get like I get off on the opposite side of the bike so I couldn’t quite um yeah get around there

Very well I was just like struggling to uh to get my feet placement I was just slipping all over the place I’m coming through um to the barriers um so uh yeah getting off here I don’t I can’t Bunny Hop so I’m running these um and uh yeah

Back into a few more kind of hair pins and stuff yeah this one I kept going really wide on it I wanted to say get a little bit more narrow um but yeah it’s just so slick in the Cor in the middle of the corner um and then yeah here is

Searching for uh as much grip as possible around the outside um yeah cuz green is grip that’s thing to remember in cycle across green is grip descending a little bit more um few people were kind of riding this corner but I was getting off uh and uh yeah just yeah

Chucking my bike around and remounting uh on the downhill um yeah I found it just I for me I think it was a little bit quicker then yeah saw some people kind of actually getting like one leg out and scooting along and stuff um but

Yeah I just found it easy to get off completely throwing the bike around the corner jump back on much quicker yeah this is kind of like the only point on the the whole course where you can actually put like any kind of sustained power down um the rest of it you kind of

Just either just fighting to get grip out of the out of corners or um well yeah or cornering so this is like the only bit of kind of sustained effort there is on the whole course so yeah now uh starting to climb um back up again uh

So yeah climbing all the way up here I found this part really tough for some reason it starts off on on grass and then luckily as it gets steeper um we jump onto the pavement here um but yeah it was still no rest by it’s like yeah

The GoPro wasn’t really kind of uh sure off actually how kind of steep it was and after obviously a sustain the only sustained effort of the uh the whole um the whole rate on the whole course um yeah yeah hitting max heart rate up here

Which is uh was hard and then yeah this entrance onto this kind of off camber uh section um was quite difficult and then yeah trying to stay high um I found that more and more difficult throughout the race to try and stay high up on that on

That top line cuz other you get kind of get dragged down the hill and then uh yeah this steep kind of descent um just trying to stay upright um and then uh a few people were able to kind of ride this section not me I was off and uh

Running up um and even that I was just finding that even that extremely difficult running is and especially running up steep Banks is just not my thing I just somehow just always like all these people in me years just seem to be able to kind of just run up like

With ease but I just got zero grip at all don’t what it is and I was even wearing I had studs as well in the front so uh yeah another thing is I was doing on that which I didn’t notice enough uh people not doing I wasn’t getting on the

Bike until I got around that hairpin so a few people were getting on and Los like before The Hairpin losing a bit of time and then I was able to uh to uh get past them and I was also taking a weird line on that section as well see

Descending down on the bike but then I was coming out wide and then taking a high line and it felt I again I was uh getting a few seconds there this I felt was probably one of the most tricky parts of the whole course um in the

Recon and stuff I found this kind of High Line heading to like towards the barrier here um didn’t quite get it on this on this lap but um yeah getting all the way to the top um allowed you to then kind of go right wide and then cut

Across um and try and stay High cuz if you got dragged down like as I did on this bit you just would like yeah you kind of just stuck up cuz it kind of goes back up again um but yeah most of the times I did manage to get up on that

High Line um and then to to get there but then sometimes I didn’t even couldn’t didn’t have enough energy towards the end of the race to get up on that High Line I was having to scoot across that top bit of the uh the camber and then yeah it just just losing so

Much time through that section um even though I had a line that I thought would work um just I couldn’t I couldn’t nail it every single time yeah just kind of running out of talent that’s simple as yeah this kind of little tricky bit very slippy steep little little ramp to kind

Of push over and then here you had two options um you could run up the stairs which I think I did on every lap or there’s like a slightly like a b line which was slightly longer which made able to stay on the on the bike um but

Yeah I didn’t don’t yeah didn’t use that didn’t need to use that at all in the race pretty much is nearly like two or three corners left before the uh the end um so yeah this bit was uh very slick and just having to try and yeah just

Wheel spin um I don’t know other people seem to find it fine but I I was just uh yeah I just spinning like my rear wheel was just spinning maybe less pressure in the rear on the on the rear tire might have uh might have done me uh done me

Some favors on a few of those bits and yeah this is uh second to last Corner um no problems here yeah I had lots of grip there and then uh yeah over to the uh the start Finish Line again inside my head you know the bit we have to run

Around that hair pin yeah that’s I thought I was being clever by lifting my bike over the take I just fell over completely over like yeah I mean I’m I fell on this side this side I’m mud just to balance it out yeah yeah yeah I’m not

Sure I know it’s a course it’s going to suit me yeah so that makes me feel a bit more nervous it was just saying to George I just building up that first bit over and over again at the start of getting to the top of that climb I do it

Every race and then they forget that it’s over in 30 seconds then you’ve got an hour to go but I’m looking forward to how you feeling about that front row start everyone’s quite good in Yorkshire as well aren’t they and I’m not so I think

I got there on on Dent of Fitness in white cuz that was a fitness course so I think I’ve got there on the back of some some Fitness and I think today is maybe more skills based in Fitness cuz it’s quite hard there’s not many places you

Can really gas it is there um the climb the climb and the flat and maybe a couple of bits in the grass but it’s going to be a learning this is going to be so slow just for reminding myself while I do it for fun today Ryan’s

Asking everyone feels um not good after doing a warm up laugh and falling off pretty much all the time what are you thinking about your choice of tires today Rob more my choice of laziness yesterday and not Tire not changing them so that’s probably the can I can I get

My tire Choice recorded as well just in case yeah see that are you on baby lemus say George yeah I don’t think I’ve mentioned it I’m on the baby lemus today I’d like the bigger brother but we can’t have it all can we and then the man

Himself how are you feeling Ryan I’m feeling pretty pretty good actually I’ve actually got The Right Tires I’ve got the actual L on so I haven’t got any excuse there there’s not a lot of running so I haven’t got that excuse and yeah I can go around corners usually so

I haven’t got that excuse either so win I’m just hoping to get round I think um yeah just get round take it nice and setting not fall off don’t get bullied by Juniors don’t get bullied by the Juniors try not to get bullied by the vet 40s when they come up from to

Minutes behind oh yeah um and yeah stay upright that’s it really sounds like a good plan and beat Rob I have to beat Rob how you feeling Tom been asking everyone a really good it’s super griffy course can’t wait to come off on that corner every corner that’s I had

Finished listing them all Yet He [Applause] could get my feet in for the last three laps I was really struggling well I was riding Flats I lost no wonder when you look at that I lost a place on the last lap to a guy that secretly I normally beat so how’s that Rob you’ve got footage

So you should um that that’ll tell you exactly how it was for me alth I only fell off twice and you got it both times which is really annoying 10 and definitely but I reckon about seven again I I’m so annoyed I lost that place on the last

Lap so annoyed did you run that corner over there the really slow one uh yeah on the down yeah I did it on the first lap and freaked everyone out that as a spectator ktie good it was good to watch load of people falling off don’t find can’t see it

Yourself that was brutal yeah so so muddy so slick yeah I didn’t fall off so that’s a yeah that’s a positive but um yeah I did uh guys taking it probably a little bit easier than I should have been for like the middle part of the

Race I tried to like start kicking on towards the end but um yeah I like dropped the chain uh when I was like I thought I was catching up to uh to Rob to drop the train drop the train and uh yeah cuz the mud was just getting

Completely clogged up in the bike and then uh i’ stop get that off I get that back on again and then yeah started pushing again for like the last like two or three laps and then yeah like halfway through the last lap I just didn’t have any gears my gears just stopped working

And uh yeah I was in like the small like the biggest ring at the back the biggest uh smallest gear and I was just like spinning away trying to like catch up to people but yeah good fun out that was a proper proper cross race like super hard

Uh but yeah really really enjoyed it I gave it as much as I could without kind of coming off and uh yeah that’s what it is