After completing a tour of the French Alps this summer I was left wondering what my next challenge could be. When the road season ends a new season starts...Cyclo-cross (CX). I'd never participated in this discipline before other than once volunteering at my local club's event at Abbey Stadium in Redditch. I thought it would be a good way to keep up the fitness over winter and learn some new skills.

CX involves taking a drop-bar solid frame bike with some narrow knobbly tyres on and hooning it through grass, mud and woodlands with the odd obstacle thrown in for good measure. I purchased a gravel bike a couple of years ago and had never really put it through its paces. All I had to do was don it with some tyres that could handle mud and register for the West Midlands CX League. This was an 11 race series at various locations in the area with races for all ages from under 6s to 50+ veterans. I was in the vets 40+ category and this was the last race of the day, so everyone before me could churn up the course for me, lovely.

Before the first race, I realised I was pretty clueless about this kind of riding. I was comfortable riding on canal tow paths and gravel tracks but not negotiating off-camber muddy banks and twisty S-bends. I had heard that another local club, Peddlamaniacs, ran CX practice sessions on Thursday evenings. On the first session I attended we practiced mounting and dismounting (you clip into your pedals just like a road bike but use MTB style pedals as they cope better with mud). From the get-go I had already fallen off on the slippery grass and struck my right calf with the pedal, resulting in a nasty gash. What a great start!

What follows are brief race reports for each round I attended. I didn't go to every round due to not wanting to travel too far or, more likely, wimping out because of the weather.

Round 1 - Ullenhall

This was as "nice" as it was going to get. Sunny, warm and pretty dry. There were no obstacles on the course so it was a solid 50 minutes of riding as hard as you can.

The nerves were high but what helped was the big turn out from the club, the camaraderie was strong and spirits were high. When the whistle blew I got carried away by the adrenalin rush and went too hard from the start. I started to go backwards but didn't finish last!

Round 4 - Studley

This was my first taste of a technical course. This had boards to jump, steps to climb and an off-camber bank to negotiate. This was at the end of September and the wet weather had started, so there was a bit of mud to contend with too.

I tempered my start this time but got a bit scared of some of the deep mud patches and the steep off-camber bank towards the end of the lap. The mounting and dismounting skills I had learned at Peddlamaniacs paid off as I was quick over the boards. My climbing legs also helped me gain a couple of places on the steep hill that was on this course.

Rounds 5 and 6 - Heart of England Centre

These were two back-to-back Sunday races at the same venue but with a different course layout. Round 5 went around a lake on gravel before going into some woods on single track. I didn't have confidence on the single track as I was still learning to be comfortable with letting the bike move around in the mud.

Round 6 couldn't have been more contrasting. It had rained a lot and the course was super muddy. It was more out in the open on the fields. I had doubts of even racing after trying one practice lap but managed to psyche myself up for it. The mud was thick and I had to get off and run with the bike a lot. This was one of the hardest rounds as it ended up being an hour and twenty minutes of slogging it. The race commissaire is supposed to figure out how many laps roughly fit into 50 minutes but grossly miscalculated this!

Round 7 - Worcester University (Lakeside Campus)

I was feeling a bit under the weather and in hindsight should not have raced this one. The course was fairly dry and not too technical but had long straights and so was more of a power circuit which didn't suit me at all, especially with a respiratory illness!

There were a lot of off-camber banks and a pipe that even I could bunny-hop over. The start was feisty as I was gridded higher up than normal and someone way faster than me shoulder barged their way through from the back. It's often the way when there are bottlenecks in the course, position is key to get over the first climb otherwise you are off the bike and running it.

Round 9 - Redditch (Abbey Stadium)

This round was co-hosted by Redditch and my local club Warwick Lanterne Rouge. I was volunteering before my race on car park and crossing point duties. It was fun squeezing in 400 competitors throughout the day! I really got to appreciate how much goes on behind the scenes at these races, so a big thank you to everyone who mucked in this year, it's much appreciated!

This was the point in my CX career when I realised that yes, there are many different kinds of mud and this kind was the "I'm not going to give you any grip" kind. I crashed in practice when I went around a corner too quickly and my front wheel washed out. I landed gear-side up (thankfully) and slid for quite a while. Luckily when you crash in CX it's usually a soft landing, but the evidence of crashing is hard to get rid of when a giant strip of mud is down your entire left-hand side of your body!

Round 11 - Sandwell Valley Park

I would describe this race as cross country running whilst carrying your bike. It's December now and the wet winter is upon us. This was nothing but a pure mud bath. This course destroyed bikes and riders. It looked slow watching the races before mine because it was. Every pedal stroke was max effort even on the flat. You didn't get any recovery time going downhill either.

I had to stop several times to remove mud from various crevices in my bike because it was hampering any ability to turn the wheels. I was just glad to finish this race, I didn't care what position it was.

Conclusion

Despite the challenges and not being physically suited to this kind of racing, I loved it and I will be back next season. I've got a few lessons to take away from this. Firstly, embrace the mud and trust the bike. Loosen my grip on the bars and my anxiety. Secondly, train more and get the body used to hard efforts. 50 minutes at full gas is a very different kind of suffering to hours at slow speed going up mountains.

Hats off to the West Midlands CX League and all the clubs involved in putting the races together. The racing was hard but polite. I received a lot of encouragement and plenty of heads-up from the faster riders who lapped me. It's great that you get points no matter where you finish and it encourages regular participation. Despite usually being towards the back by the finish of each race, I ended up 24th out of 64 who participated in my category (83 registered).

I'd also like to give a huge thanks to my fellow club mates for the support, advice, WhatsApp banter and general great company. Merry Crossmas!