World Cross Champs - report

Last weekend a few of us (me, AndyD, Jamie, BobM and AndyG) took a 24hour jaunt over to Holland to watch the World Cyclo-Cross champs. A freezing day but amazing scenes surrounded by 40,000 mad Dutch and Belgians. Journey back was interesting. National Cross champ Jody Crawforth rode very well and gave us this report of his ride ... (pictures below the report)

"I'm fairly happy with how I rode, just a bit dissappointed with where I finished. I didn't get the luck from the start that I needed and although I had good legs there were just no gaps opening up for me to get through to the front - I had to freewheel a few times instead of unleashing the power. Once you're off the tarmac start straight it's really difficult to move up because everyone's trying to do the same, dive-bombing every corner. Then i was stuck in the group I was in - you don't want to tow everyone round, but you don't want to just sit on either. I eventually got free of my group and caught some riders in penny numbers, and then on the last lap managed to catch onto another group and beat them in the sprint for the line. So I was pleased to be going forwards and feeling strong, but I know I can do much better.

I did enjoy the whole weekend though, it's great to be in the world champs with the massive crowds. And it was nice to see and hear lots of Brits from the side of the race too!

I'll do more racing in Europe next winter showing off the champs jersey, so hopefully I should get a better world ranking for the World Champs next year in Tabor.

Cheers,

Jody"