Lewes Wanderers Cycling Club entered a team of four riders in the London /South Cross Team Championship held at the Great Wallington School Haywards Heath. The flooded and muddy course tested both rider and machine to the limits as competitors battled against Somme like mud forcing competitors to dismount and run with their bikes for sections of the course. Cyclo-cross is a demanding discipline of cycling, which requires strength, stamina and bike handling skills to compete at the top level. Lewes star, Mark Winton commented on how easy the elite performers made the course seem, gliding effortless over the quagmire, with the majority of field in their wake struggling to keep upright to avoid an unwelcome mud bath.
The Lewes squad performed admirably finishing a very commendable 19th team overall. Individual placing were Mark Winton 22nd, Stephen Burgess 60th, Nick Smith 80th and a game Doug Gardner who finished in a mud splattered 102nd spot.
With spring approaching the time triallists in the club are dusting down their machines in anticipation of the long TT season ahead. Last Sunday Eastbourne Rovers hosted a 25 event starting at East Hoathly. One brave Wanderer, James Ryan, started the event but James reported that with temperatures hovering around zero he found the going too tough and was forced, in his own words “to shiver to a hypothermic halt barely half way around the course”
Next week, five Wanderers kick off their season in earnest and compete in the tough SCA Hardriders event. It is somewhat perverse that the time trialling season kicks off with tough hilly events, precisely at the point in the season where the riders are least prepared for such a baptism of fire.
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