After 2 weekends off, the Wessex Cyclocross League returned with Andover Supercross. With Catherine making the trip to a national league race instead, it was Matt Knight, Emma and Joe Shepherd, Jon Chadwick, and new cx rider Lucy Greehy representing New Forest.

The course was great fun with everything you could want in a cyclocross race, having held a UCI sanctioned race the day before. There were grassy twists and turns, mud, bridges, steep banks, a large sand pit and a bmx track. Rain overnight and a few showers during the day saw the course getting muddier and muddier throughout the day. Many of the rideable sections in the earlier races becoming running sections for the final race of the day.

Matt was up first in a massive field of 80 riders. Just after the start there was a difficult couple of turns with a muddy bank then onto the first bridge. Matt did a good job to avoid any incidents here and went on to race well finishing 56th.

Unfortunately for Jon, he only managed to complete his practice laps before a fateful puncture while waiting at the start ended his day too soon.

Emma and Lucy were up next. Both riders made up lots of places on the tricky first turns. Emma’s running background helped her catch and over take a few people throughout the race. Lucy was not afraid to lose grip on the corners and definitely gave it her all in her first cyclocross race. The two women both had a great time racing and even shouted support to each other whenever they saw the other. Lucy did a great job finishing her first cyclocross race in 32nd, 9th in the seniors. She was still smiling afterwards and seemed to have enjoyed herself. Emma secured her second podium of the season with a 5th in the seniors and 13th overall.

With a few showers during the vet 50 race and again during his race, Joe had the muddiest and toughest race of the day. After a bad start and a few falls due to lack of grip, Joe spent his race picking off riders. Some great technical riding and some strong running and riding on the last lap pulled Joe up to 24th.

A great day was had by all on a challenging but fun course. Well done to everyone that raced. The next wessex league race is the regional championships next weekend at Kingsclere. Details and entries on the British cycling website, entries close Tuesday night.