Still Smiling!

I was out early this morning and on two buses to the other side of Bradford to spectate at the National Cyclo-Cross Championships being held over the weekend in Peel Park.  I watched three of the events: veteran women, veteran men and junior women.  The course wound up and down and across the hillside and was, in places, fiendish, with steep cambers and increasingly muddy bends and downhills, challenging stuff!   Pal John was taking part in the over-50s event and I got lots of photos of him zooming down slopes, negotiating tricky turns and steep hills, and falling off! 

It strikes me you need to be fearless and have excellent balance as well as being physically very fit as there was quite a bit of bike carrying as the course churned up from grass to mud.

Unfortunately, we are off orienteering tomorrow or I would return to watch the elite events. However, the competitors today offered an excellent spectacle. and it was heartening to see lots of youngsters taking part and loving getting covered in mud and falling off.  My blip is taken from the Junior Women's event.  This bend comes at the bottom of a very steep hill and quite a few riders, experienced and otherwise, mistimed the turn and the mud, ending up in it.  Seconds later this junior was up and back on her bike and racing to catch up - loved it!

Hundreds more blips of cyclists and mud here.