It was cold. It was wet. It was windy. The mud was reminiscent of a scene from the Battle of the Somme. This was cyclo cross racing in North Wales in mid November at its toughest. Yet 25 brave, some may say foolish, souls turned up in Amlwch on Sunday 22nd November for the second event of the inaugural North Wales Cyclo Cross League 2009/10 sponsored by Revolution Bikes Bangor under the TLI.

The course had been designed by local boys Rich and Marco with the assistance of Gareth from Revolution Bikes. A leisurely two lap warm up prior to the 11am start revealed that the lads wanted to test all aspects of the rider's ability - fitness, agility, strength and bike handling skills. A 400m grassy start on the local playing fields led to a technical, narrow and muddy wooded section. Out of the woods you were then faced with a steep grassy climb prior to another technical muddy descent, followed by a fast flat section, then through a narrow gate and on to a fun gravelly pad of switch-back BMX track prior to entering the playing fields again. This course certainly had everything packed into it.

So to the race. After two weeks paternity leave filled with changing dirty nappies, sleepless nights and convincing my two year old that his new baby brother was not about to steal his Bob the Builder toys and DVD collection...I lined up at the start with my wife's final words as I left the house that morning resonating in my ears, 'you crazy fool!' yep, she was right. But at least there were another twenty four just like me. We were off.

It was fast...it was furious..legs were pumping. The adrenalin glands were on overdrive as everyone made a mad dash to be the first into the technical wooded section. Matt Prichard got there first and stayed at the front for the remainder of the race. Further back bodies and bikes were being flung around in all directions as people jostled for position and tried to navigate their way around obstacles and fellow competitors. This was fun!

Out of the woods we then hit the sharp steep slippery climb to the highest point on the course, overlooking the harbour and Anglesey coast (or so I was told!) Everyone was either pushing or carrying their bikes at this point and breathing through every available orifice. Then down the wet and rocky descent before hitting the grassy plateaux and the hair-pin of the BMX track. Back on to the playing fields and it was one lap down..I was puffed...and had another 50 minutes to go!!

After another couple of laps things calmed down as most people settled into their own sustainable rhythm. The course got muddier and wetter as the laps passed but for me this just added to the fun and excitement. Despite the hard work the smiles on fellow competitor's faces as they crossed the start finish area for the final time suggested likewise.

Matt Prichard of Revolution Bikes took the win, making it two out of two for the series. He was followed two minutes later by Chris Purt (who'll be ordering a cross bike from Santa!) Third place went to Pete Windsor of Llyn CC. Encouragingly, the race also contained a good showing of juniors, who were led home in their 30 minute race by Owain Llyr of Energy Cycles.