NWCCA Round 8 Race Preview: Element CT & Friends Cyclocross at Betley Court Farm
Welcome to Round 8 of the NWCCA League hosted by Element CT and friends with a return to the welcoming venue of Betley Court Farm, just South of Crewe on Sunday 17th December – many of you will be familiar with the venue from the fab North of England Champs on Sunday 3rd December. It’s a lovely privately owned venue with loads of parking and an on-site cafe. Mick Style is your Race Organiser for this event.
Race Venue
The race venue is Betley Court Farm, CW3 9BH – it’s about 10 minutes off Junction 16 of the M6. There is an on-site cafe serving coffee, tea, cakes & toasties etc. – marked on the map – which will be open especially for our race so please show your support.
This is a working farm so please stay well away from farm machinery, working areas and animals!
Directions
From Junction 16 of the M6, take the A500 west towards Nantwich. At the second roundabout turn left, sign-posted for Betley. After about 2 miles, entering the village of Betley, continue on this road and Betley Court Farm is on the right. There will be a yellow Event Parking sign indicating your turn so look out!
Parking
There is ample parking for everyone and the ground is well drained so hopefully there will not be a problem getting away. Please follow the parking marshall’s instructions and park facing down the hill only.
As the venue charges us for the use of the land, we are asking for a £1 parking fee per car. Please try and have the correct change.
Race Entries & Times
All entries are online via BC’s website and the closing date is Tuesday 12th December at 23:55 with all the standard NWCCA Race Times applicable.
Please be prompt in getting to the Start Line for gridding – listen out for the whistle and don’t forget your ankle tag.
Sign-On & Courses
Sign-On will be in a gazebo on the left as you enter the main site.
The courses will be significantly different to the NofE’s event but the finish and pits will be in broadly the same positions. We’ll run the course within a tight area so it should be all visible for crews and supporters for the entire lap. We’re going to use a mixture of the field grassland and three hard pack climbs which will give some respite if the course has had a lot of rain. There will be a number of skills features like switch-back climbs, switch-back descents, fast S bend descents, off camber descents as well as plenty of opportunity for sustained power output! Hopefully one set of hurdles too. The course is c.3 km long with shorter cuts for the Youth Race and the U12/10/8 Races.
We’ll make the Under 8/10/12 course less technical of course but include enough to test budding CX skills proportionately!
As ever, please don’t practice on the course when there is a race on that part of the track. If in doubt, ask a Marshall.
Pits
The Pits are within easy reach of the Car Park – see course map. There is an outside tap available on site – marked on the map, but I recommend bringing your own water due to risk of water being unavailable on the day for some reason. (It was frozen at the North of England champs here!)
Last race of the day
Special request…..Please could ALL racers in the 14.45 (Senior/Junior and V40 Open race) Race, grab a handful of stakes and roll tape up – once the final rider has completed the course – and bring them back to sign-on area? Thank you all – the light will already be fading fast at 15.45 so we need to be super quick in taking the course down and packing it away.
Pack c.40 stakes per bag with the pointy end sticking out, different bags for white and blue stakes please. Thanks to Craig, Dan & the HMCC squad and Mike & the Liverpool Century team for loan of the stakes, and to Challenge Tires for their League Sponsorship.
Prizes
We’ll award the children’s prizes on the day, as soon as possible after the race. Thanks to Torq and Ken Fosters Cycles (Chorlton) for their generosity in supplying the children’s prizes.
All other monetary prizes will be awarded via Paypal in the days after the event.
Smiles & Santa hats
That’s it for now – any last minute changes will be communicated via the BC email facility. Bring your biggest smiles, silliest grins and best Santa hats!
Look forward to seeing you all on the 17th and have a very Happy Crossmas!