London CX League Round 9 Leeds Castle- promoted by Dulwich Paragon.
A tough, lumpy, agricultural course, especially for the Youth/Junior /Adult categories, saw a good number of Thanet Riders, including Thorsten, Lughaidh, Max, Charlie, Freya, Jack, Luke (VC Deal) Flynn and Toby Perry. The first race of the day was won by Oscar Amey of Team Darenth, but Lughaidh gave him something to think about for a good part of the race, before dropping off to finish a very comfortable 2nd. Max Robinson was by far the quickest rider in the twisting downhill section through the trees, handling his new bike really well to just be pipped for 5th owing to a bit of traffic 2 corners out. Thorsten found the course teeth-rattlingly hard but kept at it, trying to catch Alana Lord of VC Deal. The U12 race was really hard fought with a lot of quality in the field, Charlie rode well given he is still suffering with a cold and finished within the top half of the field. The course did not suit Freya, nor did her father’s poor attention to post-single-ring-maintenance help her as she dropped her chain at a crucial moment in the last lap. Next up, Jack, Flynn and Luke Hill, in the U14/U16 race this was run over the adult course lasting 45 mins which was a tough workout for the young riders. Jack finished ahead of Flynn who was ahead of Luke all in placings 10-20th in field of 35. Toby Perry was struggling with a cold so not sure on his finish position. Finally David Kenning a new member rode his first cycloX for the season in the Vet 40-50 race – comment from David “Best I can say about my performance in the V40s race is that I didn’t finish last… That was a really tough course and my lack of fitness didn’t help”
Post by Colin Robinson and Phil Cook
