Tuesday 27 October 2009

Drumlanrig Round of the South of Scotland Youth Cyclocross Series

The Drumlanrig round of the South of Scotland Youth Cyclocross series takes place on Saturday the 21st November as follows. Also see Update - see http://rootrats.blogspot.com/2009/11/drumlanrig-youth-cyclocross-race-route.html for details of the race route and travel instructions.

South of Scotland Youth Cyclcross Series





Wednesday 21 October 2009

Cyclocross season now underway!

The Scottish Cylocross season is now well under way.
The first race of the series took place on the 4th October at Plean near Stirling and Drumlanrig Root Rats rider, Jamie Willoughby took first prize in the U12's category. This is an execellent result for Jamie having just been promoted from the U10's group. The SCX web-site http://www.scottishcyclocross.org.uk/ reported Jamie's victory as follows: "From the gun Jamie Willoughby was quickest away leading the field down the fast/start finish straight into a tough 50m climb with short steps to negotiate. Willoughby was able to ride up this whilst behind many had to jump off and run up. "
This weekend saw the second race in the Scottish cyclocross series taking place at Auchentoshan, which is to the North West of Glasgow. This time the club were represented in both the senior and youth races. The senior race was run over a course of about a mile covering parkland, singletrack, two sets of cyclocross style jumps requiring a dismount, and a steep muddy scramble that could not be ridden! There were over 100 riders in the main race and Jack Taylor found himself being shunted off by another rider just yards after the start. Jack had a good race though and finished as 3rd Junior. Meanwhile, Andrew Taylor had a steady spill free race to finish 74th out of the 95 finishers in the main field.
Jamie Willoughby put on another great show to finish second in the U12's race.
This week's race is on Sunday at Mugdock Country Park just North of Glasgow. For further details and a full list of the SCX races from now until December, see http://www.scottishcyclocross.org.uk/2009/09/blog-post.html. Further to this watch out for details of the South of Scotland Youth SCX Series with events at Peebles, Drumlanrig and Heathall.

Dalbeattie Hardrock Challenge 4th October 2009

Drumlanrig Root Rats and Drumlanrig Rik’s Bike shed team had plenty to celebrate after the 2009 Hardrock Challenge held at Dalbeattie Forest on 3rd and 4th of October.
The Junior event was held on the Saturday, with the weather defying its own forecast by staying dry and gale free. The Drumlanrig team fielded three competitors to run 1.8m followed by a mountain bike stage of 5.2m using the trails and singletrack of the forest. All three boys competed in the 12-15 section where the competition was fierce.

Ally Taylor got off to an excellent start, finishing his run looking comfortable and well up the field, however, mechanical gremlins finished his race for him as his chain snapped on the way out of the changeover pit. Cameron Scott , who was pitting himself against much older (and bigger) boys cruised into the changeover pit and showed the others how to do a slick changeover,. He followed this up with a great ride to finish 2nd in the solo boys category. Luke Ball did the running leg for his team mate, Drumlanrig Root Rat Ryan Hill. The boys put in a great performance and their brilliant effort was rewarded with 11th place in the teams category. Well done to all the boys.

The much trained for and greatly anticipated adult race was held on the Sunday. The weather conditions were near perfect and the 10mile run followed by the 16 mile mountain bike stage attracted the largest field that this event has seen so far.

Best placed Drumlanrig rider was Ewan Clark, securing second place in the Mens Team category with Lewis Harkness from Thornhill who ran a great 10m. Ewan was sporting a natty hairdo under his helmet, as he recently had stitches removed from his head. Next Drumlanrig face past the finish line was rider was Graeme Scott, who powered home in third place in the Solo Men’s category. To state the obvious, solo competitors do both the running leg and the riding stage! Richard Cantillon followed a great run by Gordon Vivers by keeping his head and riding strongly to finish in 8th place in the Male Team section. Sixteen year old Drumlanrig rider , Jack Taylor took everyone, including himself by surprise by finishing 5th in the Solo Mens’ category against seasoned triathletes. Although Jack has lots of cycling and racing experience, he had never before tried a duathlon, and was in new territory with the cycling hard after running hard combination. Not to be outdone by son Jack, Drumlanrig members Jane and Andrew Taylor finished their Hardrock Challenge team effort 10 minutes up on last years time to finish in 9th place in the Mixed Teams section.

Well done to all those who participated, supported and organised this year’s event. It certainly lives up to the slogan, "the friendly duathlon."

Drumlanrig Root Rats Winter Coaching

This note is to let Yoofs riders know that we are planning to restart coaching sessions for the Yoofs group only on the 12th November using floodlights provided by Scottish Cycling. Richard Lord will be along to help out and to make sure that we don't blow the floodlights up! The aim of these sessions will be to focus on the skills that you will need to enter cyclocross races - see below for more details of upcoming races. I will be in touch in just over a week once we have finalised the details, but please put the date in your diary now. Our thoughts are to run a bi-weekly session from then on. We are hoping to make a similar announcement for the Sprogs coaching soon.

We are just getting into the cyclo cross season and there are weekly races up and down the country organised by Scottish Cyclocross. If you are interested in finding out more about these races, see the club blog entry at http://rootrats.blogspot.com/2009/10/cyclocross-season-now-underway.html . However, as many of these races are quite far away, Scottish Cycling, Drumlanrig Root Rats, Stepping Stanes and Peebles CC are organising a South of Scotland Youth cyclocross league. This will be open to under 16's with races at Drumlanrig, Peebles and Heathall. We are hoping that all club members will enter the race at Drumlanrig and many will enter the full three race series. The dates are 14th November - Peebles, 21st November - Drumlanrig and 12th December - Heathall. Please put these dates in your diary.

Whilst you are waiting for us to resume the coaching at Drumlanrig, there are the following opportunities for top level coaching and racing under the guidance of the Scottish Cycling regional development coaches:

Downhill race and coaching 31st October at Innerleithen http://rootrats.blogspot.com/2009/10/spooky-downhill-race-and-coaching-31st.html

Cyclocross RSR coaching event at Kilmarnock on the 31st October http://rootrats.blogspot.com/2009/10/cyclocross-coaching-31st-of-october-in.html

BMX RSR coaching event at Glasgow Titans on the 24th October http://rootrats.blogspot.com/2009/10/bmx-coaching-24th-october-in-glasgow.html

please feel free to get in touch by reply to this note if you would like some more details, or are worried about bike requirements for any of the events. You might find it useful to post comments against the above blog entries if you would like to let other club members know that you are planning to go to any of these events.

Finally, I have just posted an entry on the blog with some words and photos to describe the fantastic results achieved by everyone from the club who entered this years Dalbeattie Hard Rock Challenge. See http://rootrats.blogspot.com/2009/10/dalbeattie-hardrock-challenge-4th.html

Spooky Downhill Race and Coaching 31st October Innerleithen

Innerleithen racing brings to you a downhill race which is the first of its kind in Scotland. If you have ever wanted to try downhill racing this is the ideal entry level event. To help you compete in the afternoon I will be holding coaching sessions in the morning on the race course.

See the Innerleithen Website for more info: http://www.innerleithenmtbracing.com/

“For the kids ! A mini downhill race for the Under 16s. Riders will push/ride their bikes up to the start at the first fire road. Timing is done manually with stopwatches. Riders have no stated start time, will line up when they get to the top and leave at 30 second intervals. As many runs as they have the energy for ! The track will be the bottom section of the Cresta Run with an extra special bit Steve is arranging at the end. This is a Go-Race, and a British Cycling licence is not required.”

To enter the race: http://www.entrycentral.com/index.php?raceID=100674

To book your place for coaching in the morning drop an email to David Winton at david.winton@scottishcyling.org.uk Note there are limited places for coaching and there is a nominal fee of £5 for the half days coaching you will receive.

Cyclocross Coaching - 31st of October in Kilmarnock


BMX Coaching 24th October in Glasgow