The last round of the Mosquito SE/London league was held at Wilmington in rather snowy conditions. Proving that it takes unimaginably bad weather to stop cross racing a brave contingent, including several LP riders, showed what a tough, ingenious bunch they are. Full results here.

Chris Dick had another good day out on this the oldest cross course in the London league taking a well deserved third place.
Full results here.

The regional championships at Bethlem Hospital saw Matt Webber come in third and Chris Dick place 12th with an impressive ride. Full results here.

Well done to all who took on the Thetford challenge in cold but clear conditions. Full gallery of decent pics here and a video of the start and some other incidents here.

London Phoenix promoted round nine of the SE series at Gunpowder again and it was considerably muddier than 2011! A challenging but enjoyable day for all riders on a great course. Thank you to all volunteers – course builders, drivers, stewards, and cake bakers! A full list of finishers is here.

Congratulations Chris Dick on placing third in round seven of the SE league. Full results are here.

A brilliant day of Cross racing at the iconic North London venue with the finale of the Rapha Super series, a wall of foam, and Tequilla shortcuts for those that dared! Thank you and well done to all London Phoenix members that helped out but particularly Neil for all the work put in to make this a success. Results and more photos here. The Supercross series video is now available to view here.

Many thanks to SportSunday for the photos.

Big congratulations to Astrid, Damian and Wes for completing the three peaks challenge in extreme weather conditions – cold and very wet! Astrid finished on the podium placing third in the overall Womens category. Results, Astrid podium shot, and many more pics are here.

“Well that was unpleasant. New levels of pain and suffering were experienced this weekend in Switzerland. Oh Maratonna, Oh Marmotte, Oh etape you are just mildly annoying children in comparison to this heartless beast.
125km, 5000m vertical ascent, and 44 degree heat. No wonder they could only find 650 fools to take part in this monster ride.
From the start in Verbier the road blasts north. No gentle intro, no warm up, just up up up. At the top a tunnel; “Welcome to hell” reads the sign, as Brian Johnsons band of minstrels belt out their tunes from within the dimly lit mountain. This could be fun I thought.
Wrong. We descend 5 km, quick, over what feels like a slip sliding sea of oily marbles. Thank christalp that’s over, it can’t get worse than that.
Wrong. The next 11 hours consist of crawling up dusty cols, sun stabbing at your back before plummeting in to the next of six valleys the course traverses over an increasingly suicidal series of drops.
Roots, rocks, ravines thrown at us, make a mockery of Hadleigh farms efforts. Unable to prep for this (I only bought an mtb last year and Epping is no training ground) I lost time again and again limping, tumbling, rolling earthward as locals flew past bouncing over the scree and rocks, their technique an art. By the end I was getting better but having promised my daughter I would see her again, knuckles again whitened as the brakes were squeezed, fear flushing though my pulverized brain.
In this race there is not a second to relax. Either the physical effort of climbing or the mental trauma of coming down piled pressure on pressure, again and again. Time on the road helped me pull back time on each climb, passing row on row of burly veterans and wasted yoofs only to then…
…nothing prepares you for what is to come. 15km from the end, with the Matterhorn looming over, the road rises then disappears.
A scree of loose, frost blasted shale cascades down the mountain from the ridge 1000m ahead. Feet slip, six inches a step up and over the desperate demented souls heave their wilted carcasses and fractured frames. Lungs, shrivelled tongues like dogs slurping up any oxygen in this 3000m high cauldron of the damned.
But we did it. Somehow. Many didn’t and if there was a viable alternative maybe I too would have climbed into the voiture balai. Instead past dam and through glacial blue water I rode to the finish.
Would I do this again? Maybe.
Am I glad I did it? Absolutely. I am seriously proud I finished and would like to thank Simon sincerely for getting me into this.
So to conclude, almost, with the words of Peter Cook
“from being dead you learn how to be alive…” some will know the next line.”

Our very own Pete Johnston recounts his experience of this years Grand Raid. A course with no equal. Entries for 2013 now being taken!

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