Bolsover & District Cycling Club

This course at Draycott farm was a new venue for the NDCXL. The circuit was predominately through some farmers fields that were on a hillside. The long Eaton Velo club has managed to squeeze every bit of the available features to make the course interesting which included some tricky wooded sections and of course the steep hill side. The course offered almost no shelter from the prevailing winds and combining this with the grassy fields and long climbs made the course a bit of a slog.

Flying the Bolsover colours was myself, Alan and Vern making a welcome return, unfortunately Steve was unable to make the race.

After breaking my chain on the last race I was hoping that I would have a problem free race, unfortunately my start was anything but. Unknown to me, on the starting grid my break blocks had slipped past the wheel rim and jammed into the spokes so when the whistle blew I was unable to move off. When I eventually realised what the problem was and sorted it the rest of riders were nowhere to be seen. Setting off on my own was strange but I had lots of encouragement from the supporters and I did my best to claw my way back into the field of riders.

Alan Maddocks had arrived early to survey the course and he was not overly impressed due to the exposed nature of the course. Alan had set off and was making his way around the course and was finding it difficult. He had a couple of incidents falling off twice but he managed to dig deep and finish the race with a smile.

It was good to see the return of Vern and it looked like he was having a good race until his rear mech hanger snapped on the fourth lap. Not to be deterred Vern shouldered his bike and carried on managing to finish the race on foot.