Redhill's keen mountain bike racer, Andrew Lewis has provided this very tongue in cheek account of his first foray into cyclocross racing......

“So, despite mountain bike racing for 30 years (ouch!!) I’ve never done a cyclocross race before. When I saw the poster for the Reigate priory race I thought to myself ‘how hard can that be - I’ll be on a proper off-road bike!’.

So I found myself at the park, with all my family supporters in tow and in loud voice, surrounded by funny looking nearly road bikes in the hot sunshine wondering what I’d let myself in for.

As I lined up on the grid the organiser grumbled that mountain bikes were too wide to fit in the slot, I laughed and goaded him about being in the right bike, then we were off!

I started from the 3rd row in the vets cat, and made a surprisingly good start as the course went up the hill, passing quite a few people. The course was hilly, tight and twisty and brilliant fun. The first lap was hectic - I made up loads of time on the technical descents - funny how a dropper post, suspension and flat bars helps with that!

It was a full on flat out sprint and I found that really hard - I’m used to longer races, but really enjoyed the close racing. A highlight was being cheered by the crowd on every lap as I bunnyhopped the two boards, that everyone else I saw got off and carried their bike over.

The race was 45 mins and, although my lap times slowed a bit, I managed to get 6 laps in and finished 19th of 75, and 9th in the over 50s.

In summary - I still don’t understand the point of a cross bike, except for the tarmac climb as mtbs are so much better, but saw some pretty talented riding, and had a blast! Where were all the Redhill roadies??? 😉.”