West Midlands Cylocross League, Round 5, Heart of England

[@markg99]

This looks great fun, Stu! I'd have loved this as a kid when i used to own a bike. Well done on all the improvements 💪👏

[@SwimBikeRunStu]

You would love it. It's great fun and super friendly. It's alot of fun that's for sure. Type 2 fun 🙈🤣

[@TheCoeliacCyclist]

Well done Stu, good start to this year's Cyclocross season, always nice when you catch some people in front. Great thing about cross is there is racing the whole way drone the field. Lower tyre pressures definitely a good choice as that was a fairly muddy course.

[@SwimBikeRunStu]

Yeh agree, it's great to be able to race even at the back. I'm slowly improving I think 🤔 Tyre pressures are a dark art and I'm slowly learning 👌 you need to share your knowledge on your channel 👍 That way I can learn more.

[@TheRegularRunner]

Good effort Stu! Always good to be able to see where you are making progress even if the fitness isn't quite there

[@SwimBikeRunStu]

Yep progress is progress. I enjoy the journey of improving. It's all about having fun.

[@Run_Like_a_T-Rex]

Top effort Stu! Congrats on the 2 overtakes too! Really enjoy watching the Cyclo-cross vids as a non-cyclist and listening to you talk about how you were feeling and explaining why you were doing things and what you were learning on your way round. Enjoy your holiday! Not jealous of the tailgate at all 😬

[@SwimBikeRunStu]

Ahh appreciate that. Trying to appeal to non cyclists so that's good to hear 👌 We aren't tailgating anymore, we have tickets to the game 👊 A night time game so should be ace.

[@Run_Like_a_T-Rex]

@@SwimBikeRunStu ok, now I’m jealous!! That’ll be ace! Is it the Iowa vs Wisconsin game you’re going to?

[@duncanc8474]

Well done, solid effort. 💪🏻

[@SwimBikeRunStu]

Cheers dude. I suck at cross but I do enjoy it in a weird way 🤔🤣

[@garyhealy1065]

I was there watching my mate race in the Vet50, which he won! Good video showing the course, especially the wood section. The following Sunday was a mud fest and hard. Keep it up lad 👍🏻

[@SwimBikeRunStu]

Yeh unfortunately I couldn't make the following week due to having to get ready to go on holiday and I would have had time to get the mud out of everywhere 🤣🤣

[@benevamalc]

Looked fun! Can’t do Sunday’s local race but looking forward to doing my second race in December

[@SwimBikeRunStu]

It was fun. I've decided not to race for the rest of this year now. I'm just going to slow build up fitness towards next year. I love racing but it does throw me out of the rhythm of my build phase. Wanna hit spring hard.

[@itsTJM]

Good work Stu!

[@SwimBikeRunStu]

Thank you. Lots of improvement needed but I'm having a blast 👌

[@triathlonfat2fit]

Solid effort and beast mode was defo engaged for that race.

[@SwimBikeRunStu]

Cheers dude. Hope your keeping well? My beast mode is only small 🤣🤣

[@gregdufeu]

Have fun cleaning that bike Stu! 😂

[@SwimBikeRunStu]

Love cleaning bikes 🙄🤣 It's all part of the fun, of cross 👌

[@sagsdothedu]

Great training Stu. I’d be falling off every few minutes 🤯. You’re defo getting better I reckon

[@SwimBikeRunStu]

I thought I would fall of all the time but it just doesn't happen. Absolutely helps my road riding for sure. Pure power efforts, there is no resting 🙈

[@raleyadventures]

Well done, enjoyed this video and looked like your skills have really improved 🎉🎉👊👊

[@SwimBikeRunStu]

We are getting better. Enjoying the fun side of trying. It's always a good laugh and super friendly. 👌

[@dogburn]

I started my full distance IM program so I feel your pain. Every day my garmin says "rest". That looks so fun, I need to get a gravel bike for this kind of stuff.

[@SwimBikeRunStu]

Yep you definitely need a gravel bike. I bet you have some great gravel riding where you live?

[@Lazy_Jay_Racing]

Well done for getting stuck in, regardless of your fitness level... It's all good... You showed huge improvement from your previous cx race so definitely be proud of that😊👍🏼 keep learning, be confident and keep loving it... Riding bikes is cool 😎👌(that is what I tell myself too)

[@SwimBikeRunStu]

Yeh although I've got not fitness I feel my skills have got better so I enjoyed it more. One day il be able to race someone 🤣🤣 It's all about the enjoyment and agree that riding bikes is cool 😎 Hope your keeping well and hope to see you at a race this year 👌

[@peterward4016]

Really enjoyed watching your vid. & commentary. Glad you enjoyed yourself - quite often beating the course is your priority as opposed to beating other riders. And if you rode this course the following week which was a classic mud fest, you’ll know exactly what I mean! Suppose you’d call me a seasoned vet CX rider.

[@SwimBikeRunStu]

Thank you very much I appreciate the kind comments. Yeh it's just me trying to beat the course at the minute. I don't ming being at the back because I'm having fun and improving. Unfortunately I couldn't then make the mudfest race due to going away. 👌 Looking forward to the rest of the season.

[@TheTrashlete]

Nice work. Still jealous there’s no cross scene where I’m at.

[@SwimBikeRunStu]

Yeh that sucks. Cross is so much fun. Work so much harder than being on zwift. You will just have to move states 🤣🤣

[@UtahRunning]

Nice race Stu! Was a fun watch. Curious though, as we have absolutely ZERO knowledge of this sport.. do y'all clip into these bikes? When Vicky slid out, she was able to put her foot down super quick, so that seems like maybe not, but then again, maybe some people are just more skilled than we know lol. Also, the mud flipping everywhere would drive Tyson insane! (But he still wants to do it so we started googling for our area)

[@SwimBikeRunStu]

Yep all clipped in. Helps balance on the bike. Can unclip pretty easily. It's all about practice. I am no way skilled 🤣🤣 Just a bit mad really 😅 Cross racing is great. You would love it.

[@UtahRunning]

@@SwimBikeRunStu that's crazy impressive to me. My clip in/out pace is a solid 10+ seconds, so I would just end up on my face trying to unclip that fast. I am sure I could get better with more practice, but at the moment, that's just mind boggling to me to be able to do it that quickly.

[@ultragobi]

It was a hard day out mate , lots of us were off and running at various points. Doing any more ?

[@SwimBikeRunStu]

It's always tough riding cross. 🙈 Hope you had a good race. Hopefully il get to more races this year. Its just finding the time to do them all. I do enjoy them 👌

[@ultragobi]

@SwimBikeRunStu make time! I've missed one round :-)