Wednesday 18 Dec 2013
York Sport Night Cross Part 2
Venue: York Sport Village, Lakeside Way, York YO10 5FG
Race Times Under-12 – 18:45 – 10 mins – £1.00 | Youth – 19:00 – 30 mins – £5.00 | S/J/V/W – 19:45 – 50 mins – £13.00
Event organiser: Mr Andrew Johnston andrew.johnston@cliftoncc.org
Getting its third outing in a couple of weeks, the Yorksport venue hosted the second of three floodlit night Cyclo-Cross events in testing conditions.
Over 50 riders lined up for the SJVW race in a blustery wind, with drizzle also in the air, ready to tackle a slightly tweaked course that had absorbed a considerable quantity of rain in the previous week.
And it was round 1 winner, Nick Barnes, who once again made the running as the riders streamed off the short tarmac start-straight onto the muddy section of course leading up to the timing mats. Barnes was already a couple of seconds up at this point and he soon extended that to nearly 20 by the end of the first lap, with Jamie Sharp and Chris Barnes leading the rest of the field.
Despite the soaking it had received, the course held up well for most of the race. However, the weather took a big turn for the worst with about 20 minutes to go, the wind rising significantly and sweeping in heavy rain. Lap times began to soar and it became more of a battle of attrition as sections of the course finally began to cut up and combined with the winds to bring most riders down to a crawl at times.
However, at the sharp end, Nick Barnes simply rode away from the rest to take an emphatic win. Sharp was equally comfortable in second with leading Junior, Chris Barnes, taking third.
York Cycleworks duo Andy Windrum and Wayne Nicholson took the Vet-40 and Vet-50 categories, respectively.
The finish couldn’t come too soon for the majority, but it was a sea of smiling, wet and mud spattered faces that gathered to hand in their numbers and chips – despite the conditions almost everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves and the banter was flowing as the fantastic Yorksport showers got a hammering as everyone cleaned up for the journey home.
Earlier the Youth race attracted a small but quality field, with Dinnington RC’s Ben Turner taking the win. We’ll add the under-12 results shortly.
Yorkshire Cyclo-Cross Association 