I've done a few cross races over the years, sometimes I love it and sometimes I hate it but the one thing I don't have is any cross skills. I'm not too bad at descending due to mountain biking but anything that involves you getting off your bike and everyone streams past me. When I saw that there was a women's cross training session being organised in Burnley I realised this was the perfect time to learn some skills. So this morning I headed out into the fog. By the time I got to Burnley they weather was lovely. About eight of us gathered ready to start our training.
First I had a slight mechanical, trying to let some air out of tyres I let too much out, oops. But then pumping it back up the valve broke in the pump, it took a lot of pulling to get it off, but once that was done and a new tube in and I was on my way.
I'd just missed remounting but we were on to dismounting. It was explained well and then we had to practice. I surprised myself and after a bit of practice I was confidently doing it without having to unclip the left foot before I even thought about it. Then it was time to put it together with a little hurdle. The first time I forgot to pick my bike up I was so concentrating on getting off my bike, oops. It's great what a bit of practice can do and I was almost feeling smooth at the end. Definetly something that is worth me practising as I lose lots of time at any hurdles.
Then we looked at how to carry our bikes, my water bottle was in the way and it was nice to hear I had come up with the right method for the three peaks. We also practised picking up and putting the bike down, another skill to practice that will definetly save time.
After all this we went for a ride, got ourselves muddy and finished with some descending.
It was a really useful and enjoyable session so thanks to Mark and Alan. There will be another session at 10am in Townley Park Burnley on Saturday 24th November, any women welcome you don't need a cross bike just something you can ride off-road.
Mark is also organising the only round of the NWCA CX league to have a women's only race. That is on the 15th December in Waddington, it'll be great to get some good numbers and show that there is demand for women's races.
First I had a slight mechanical, trying to let some air out of tyres I let too much out, oops. But then pumping it back up the valve broke in the pump, it took a lot of pulling to get it off, but once that was done and a new tube in and I was on my way.
I'd just missed remounting but we were on to dismounting. It was explained well and then we had to practice. I surprised myself and after a bit of practice I was confidently doing it without having to unclip the left foot before I even thought about it. Then it was time to put it together with a little hurdle. The first time I forgot to pick my bike up I was so concentrating on getting off my bike, oops. It's great what a bit of practice can do and I was almost feeling smooth at the end. Definetly something that is worth me practising as I lose lots of time at any hurdles.
Then we looked at how to carry our bikes, my water bottle was in the way and it was nice to hear I had come up with the right method for the three peaks. We also practised picking up and putting the bike down, another skill to practice that will definetly save time.
After all this we went for a ride, got ourselves muddy and finished with some descending.
It was a really useful and enjoyable session so thanks to Mark and Alan. There will be another session at 10am in Townley Park Burnley on Saturday 24th November, any women welcome you don't need a cross bike just something you can ride off-road.
Mark is also organising the only round of the NWCA CX league to have a women's only race. That is on the 15th December in Waddington, it'll be great to get some good numbers and show that there is demand for women's races.
HUP HUP buttercup :D
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