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We are Cross

Another fantastic weekend for Team Kinesis UK

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Last weekend saw Hannah travel back to Belgium for the double header of Cyclocross at the Prestige weekend comprising both the GP Niels Albert and Koppenberg Cross. Hannah has carried impressive form into the season winning both rounds of the Women’s elite category in the UK National Series.

The GP Niels Albert event opened the weekend with the course was based around a natural bowl and featuring a good amount of climbing. Like many European courses, there were many technical sections and steep run ups, sand pits and even a cobbled climb added to the difficult nature of the course.

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Hannah started well and began to move herself up through the top 15 attacking the climbs and riding past riders who started too quickly and were paying the price. Hannah’s training with power this year has enabled her to develop a consistent top end power thanks to lots of hard work and support from her coach Jacob from on the Rivet coaching as well as SRAM for the power meters.

The race progressed well and though often blocked in on the steep running sections Hannah and her British compatriots were proving a force at the front of the race. Hannah eventually claimed 5th for her best ever continental UCI cross race performance.

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The second race of a weekend always means heavy legs, however with the truly testy Koppenberg to tackle meant an extra special challenge for Hannah. A change of tyres to something meatier for the steep climbs and off camber corners that had become devilishly slick was a key tactic for this fantastic course.

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A boxed in start meant Hannah started slowly and even on a course featuring one of the most legendary climbs in European cycling, going too hard too early was a common feature of the race. Hannah worked hard pushing her pace up the Koppenberg. Even riding the super grippy FMB super muds , Hannah along with many others couldn’t quite ride the steepest section of the climb. Helpfully the organisers put out some carpet to get some grip on the final few steps of the run. Hannah ended up surging her way to 11th place in one of the biggest CX races of the world and we at Kinesis couldn’t be prouder of seeing her progress and of course also seeing our new CXRACE bike at the front of some of the biggest races in the world.

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Back in the UK, Bruce headed to the competitive but slightly less well spectated round 7 of the London CycloCross League.

The course was local to Kinesis UK HQ and covered in deep British murk (fog and rain) heralding the beginning of the season of muddy races. The sticky mud represented a true test for riders and challenging conditions. Bruce attacked from the start and following a charge across the gravel start/finish straight began moving his way up.

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It was the first true power course of the year, with Bruce chasing the lone leader and former league winner John Dennis. The course made short work of clean bikes transforming them into mud coated, gear clogging messes. Luckily the CXRACE has huge clearance and Bruce only needed to change once in the entire race. The single ring setup meant gears kept changing slick and solid till the end. Bruce ended up rolling in 2nd Place to take his first elite men’s podium of the year.

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Next weekend will see Hannah racing in the European championships in Huijbergen in the Netherlands. Hopefully Hannah will be able to maintain her terrific form in Huijbergenj before she dashes for the overnight ferry to meet up Bruce for round 3 of the National Trophy series.

To find out more about our CXRACE bike, click here CXRACE

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