Member in Motion - Duncan Coe

Meet our first featured Member in Motion for 2025, Duncan Coe, a passionate off-roader, Duncan is a ride leader, cx racer, event organiser and volunteer with the Club. Duncan takes us through a tale of a stormy winter, with his thoughts on the 2024-5 cyclocross season

Duncan working hard at the Newbury Velo hosted race of the Wessex League in Kingsclere

After dipping my toe into the CX world in the winter of 23/24, having missed the early rounds due to an injury, I was keen to get a full season under my belt. Who'd have thought in early September at the first Wessex league round at Clanfield, where the sun shone and the temperature reached 29 degrees, that the season would be characterised by storms and more storms?

Clanfield is always a hard test, regardless of the weather, so it proved again. The hard, bumpy ground, off-camber corners and heat all combined to make it a testing start to the season.

I skipped round 2 at Fareham, but from all accounts, it was a fast, fun course.

Round 3 saw us travel to the new purpose-built cycle facility at Morden Sports Hub in Swindon. This excellent facility with a tarmac circuit, good parking, pump track and café on site is a model we hope will spread across the country. Having a tarmac start and finish straight is a bit of an oddity in the Wessex League, but it provided great racing and a chance to pick up some speed. In a portent of what was to come, the weather had been really poor the week before, so I fitted my new mud tyres. As it turned out, the site drained well, and there was hardly any mud!

It was over to Prospect Park, Reading for round 4. This was my first time at Reading, and a really enjoyable outing. The course uses lots of woodlands and a couple of long draggy climbs but with some good fast descents as well.

Southampton Sports Centre provided the venue for round 5. This is a great venue with good terrain and several technical small climbs and descents that make the racing here really good fun.

Popham Airfield was the scene for round 6, which took place in the middle of the first named storm of the year - Storm Ashley. My category, the V50s & V60s, were lucky to head out after the rain had finished, but the course had become very wet and quite draggy. It is one of my favourite courses, and I had a really good race despite the conditions. Unfortunately, it was the last race here, as the owners are not allowing the venue to be used next year.

As there was a month between races in the Wessex League, I took myself off to a Western League race in the middle of December. This race was held at Morden Sports Hub on a very similar layout to the Wessex round. Although the course was a little wetter, it still held up well and allowed some good racing.

Early January saw the Andover Super Cross, one of the biggest events on the Wessex league calendar. Another storm arrived, turning a challenging but fun course with many technical challenges into a mud-bath. We rode in pouring rain, but at least the wind wasn't too strong!

The final race was held at Crow, near Burley in the New Forest. This course drains well and normally provides fast, fun racing with a few technical sections in the woods. However, this year, another named storm arrived (Storm Éowyn) and completely change the event's character. Most of the course was very draggy; this time, we had no shelter from the 50mph winds, with several sections straight into the headwinds!

The Wessex League season was challenging this year but still great fun. Having enjoyed the season so much, I decided to round it off by entering the RAF championships (open to all riders) at Hillingdon on the 29th of January. This was great fun, with all the riders riding in the same race for an hour (normally, we ride for 40 minutes!). Of course, the ground was still very wet in places, but it was rideable and had a good mix of challenges; I didn't really notice the extra 20 minutes!

Overall, it has been a great winter. Yes, the weather was challenging, and the courses a bit tougher, but the camaraderie, friendship and laughs made it all worthwhile. My fitness has improved significantly, and the incentive to get out and ride, regardless of the conditions, helped me with winter motivation.

Round 7 brought us home to the Newbury Velo round at Kingsclere. The weather gods shined on us, and we had a gloriously sunny day with nothing more than a gentle breeze. Fortunately, We have a great venue designed for fast racing on smooth downland turf.

Newbury Showground provided the venue for round 8. This was an excellent venue with great facilities and a good course that made the most of the terrain. I enjoyed the riding here and got involved in a 3-up sprint for the line (even though the other 2 were in the V50 race, so it didn't matter; it was fun to see how fast we could go after 40 minutes of racing).

Round 9 incorporated the regional championships, which were combined with the Western CX league. This was held in a proper storm (Storm Bert) with gale-force winds and driving rain throughout the day. Fortunately, the course is pretty sheltered, and the ground is a combination of concrete and hard-packed tracks, so despite a thin layer of mud on the surface, the racing was still pretty fast and really good fun.

We returned to Southampton Sports Centre at the beginning of December for round 10 and saw the return of stormy weather. The course was very wet and provided a real contrast to the previous Southampton round. There was standing water in several areas, and the gentle climb up to the finish was so slippery that it turned into a run.

Round 11 was designed to be part of the National Trophy weekend at Cranfield. Whilst racing was held on Saturday, the elite races due to be run on Sunday, where I was planning to volunteer were cancelled due to storm-force winds.

We are incredibly lucky to live in the heart of the Wessex League region; it is one of the strongest leagues in the country with fantastic races, really well organised, run on a range of courses with really good participation and the whole thing is organised with a sense of challenge and fun. No race is more than an hour from Newbury, with several under 30 minutes.

You won't find many saying this, but I can't wait for next winter!