Costello is Back & with Cross Club Teamwork
Costello is back, and with cross club teamwork creating an even better event than before.
The 2022 Vive le Cross series is upon us. Organised by City Road Club and Vive le Velo and sponsored by Vive le Velo, the 2022 series is sure to be another resounding success.
To pre-enter the series email CRC’s Geoff Backshall on – backshallg@gmail.com
Below you will find an article by Hull Thursday’s Ian Pythian on the work him, Paul Brearley of CRC, and other’s put in as course preparation for the up and coming events.
Since 2019 I have been helping Mr Paul Brearley of City Road Club with pre-event set up for the increasingly popular Vive le Velo cyclo-cross series. Traditionally Hull Thursday has had a team of up to 9 adult riders race each series and now we are increasingly seeing younger aspiring riders like Genevieve Coulson (below) is having a go. This is the perfect portal introduction for youngsters to get into cycling. Each event in the series consists of three races starting with the children, then the youths and finally the adults. Families and racers come along as far as Doncaster and Bradford.
Genevieve Coulson (HTRC) rides through the dark performing well in the junior events
Mike Tyas negotiates the steps closely followed by a City Road Club rider. Photo Ian Chapman Photography
Fast-forward to August 2021. As the Covid restrictions were easing, I was allowed site access to Costello Stadium grounds with a view to improving existing and opening up new tracks. This is a view both Paul and myself share. I used to maintain and develop golf courses, so it was a natural reach to extend my volunteering . My last project was as the construction manager of a 220 acre site 27 hole golf course in Cheshire and so this was a nice project to do, especially after the constraints of a lockdown. It is also good to put something back into cycling to benefit all. Paul has extensive cyclocross experience up to World cup level as an official and my professional background we have a fighting start to get the very best out of the grounds. Over time the aim is to bring to fruition as many of Paul’s designs as possible and to keep the course safe, interesting for the riders and different route options for the organiser.
My plan was to work 3-hour sessions on average, cycle out and back and use hand tools only. The first job was to split the course geographically into anti-clockwise sections A-D for ease of understanding. Being a “nocturnal” cyclo-cross event, it is conducted under the racetrack floodlights and the image below shows two of those trackside floodlights nicely. The ambient light levels need to be kept as high as possible and so with this in mind, heavy pruning was needed where possible, especially in the forest and coppice sections. Here Lee Coulson steps up.
Lee Coulson (HTRC) puts the effort in
(below) A – B connecting track (August/Sept 2021) Added approx 40 metres of track
B Forest Section – Hack, prune, rake and remove ground stems along 60 metres of forest track.
(below) B section hairpin exit – You can see heavy pruning all along the young tree row to 10ft high, again for the ambient light to penetrate the track. As a result the ambient light reaches to this far corner making it a safe passage for the riders
Section B – Hairpin exit action – Mike Kilgour powers out of the woods
(below) D Section – Heavy pruning, stone removal and grass cutting to perimeter fence line track. Adds 50 metres to course
(below) D Section – Two Silver Birch coppices were heavily pruned to 10ft to let floodlight ambient light through to the racetrack. This greatly helps riders weaving in and out of this coppice technical section. Also, heavy pruning to ground bramble bushes that were not only choking the tree bases but casting a very dark shadow on the race line in places. Now all the racetrack lines can be seen at all times, making for a safer section.
Dave Tyas and Rob Jennings negotiate the technical D section coppice
(below) D Section – Dark shadows removed from the race line track in all places now.
Dave Milson powers out of D section coppice
(below) 2022 season / B section forest – Storm Malik brought a sense of urgency to re-route a track around the felled tree. The image shows it completely blocking the existing track.
(below) Forest B section – Re-route a new track to avoid the felled tree. All brambles removed that completely obscured this old log. Roots, dead grass and log now removed
(below) Forest B section – Raking. Logs, branches and debris cleared. Paul is seen here raking dead grass ready for removal. Note the cross country runners’ post race damage on the existing greener grass. This highlights nicely how the cyclo cross and other sports co-exist together at Costello. The more cyclocross tracks we make towards the perimeter forests and coppices areas, the less impact we make to the existing grass and often the grip and handling is better and safer for the cyclist.
(below) Forest B section – Root removal. Once soil was exposed, all roots were marked, dug up and removed.
(below) Forest section reroute – Regular riders will remember this area as a complete no-go area and now we have a safe route in either direction around the forest
Root removal – This is an ongoing process. What starts off as a small root often turns out like this
(below) Track maintenance / Root removal – Section A Silver Birch coppice. Surface tree roots removed
(below) Track maintenance / Grading & Rolling – How is this for a diy set up! Here it is as an improvised grader (Tesco trolley) and it actually works! Used for the forest section to cut and fill the deep tyre grooves. Also, check out the improvised “Freedie Flintstone” type roller. Used in wetter conditions to flatten tyre grooves prior to grading.
Section C – New features – Paul’s Brearley’s vision for the future includes more new features.
New “Hill” feature – Work has already begun last February and early March. The riders will descend slightly on a single track parallel to the perimeter fence. Negotiating a slight left hand turn the rider comes to the end of the single track and is faced with a decision. To either power up the hill diagonally or to dismount and run up it. Tactically this should make an interesting feature for the powerful elite riders especially looking for marginal gains. Approx. 30 metres of new race line track and 10 metres of hill totalling another 40 metres of cyclocross course.
(below) New “Hill” feature – The image shows Scene Editor Graeme Lawton helping me “breakthrough” the 10ft brambles, Channel Tunnel style.
(below) Before – Image shows race line running into the very dense brambles
(below) – shows the dense brambles from the exit side to the hill base
(below) Final tally over 10 footballs, 1 cone, 1 Tesco trolley and these last few bricks and stones!
(below) – Entrance. Brambles removed and race line defined. More cut and fill work before being sign off safe
(below) Forest A section – Investigate new route to connect A > B track. Approx 30 metres of new single track
(forest) Forest B section – Widen the existing track through forest approx. 1-2 metres. Will generate overtaking opportunities and distribute the race damage better. I believe the work undertaken has benefited the X country runners and this will potentially spread the wear better.
“Thus far, development areas that were unusable in the past have brought good comments from riders.” Paul Brearley (event organiser & course designer)
Photo – Neil Prendergast Hull Thursday Road Club riders (L to R) Rob Jennings, Ian Phythian (author), Paul Campbell, Lee Coulson, Eddie Kelsall. Bookended by race organisers (L) Geoff Backshall and (R) Paul Brearley