You’ll have heard of Vic Barnett, he’s a club legend and rightly so. At the end of last year, he raced the UCI 2024 Masters Cyclocross World Championships. Enjoy this account of how he got there and how he got on.
Last Sunday (9th Feb) was the final round of the cyclocross season. Over the last six months, Welland Valley riders have been so well represented from under 9s to the over 60s. On a personal journey, it was a case of “mission accomplished”. Back in the spring of 2024, Ann (team manager) and I were looking ahead to the winter season and realising I would be moving up to the next age category in championship events with me targeting the Masters Cyclocross European Championships followed by the Masters Cyclocross World Championships.
It had a pretty average summer season, taking part in club time trials and Friday night mountain bike races followed by 5km Park Runs on Saturdays. I was quite selective in choosing cyclocross events, riding some local and some Central, West Midlands and Eastern races. I think it was after our own promotion at Misterton and battling with Jon and Matt that gave me the incentive to enter the Euros and the Worlds.
So it was then that flights, hotels and car hire were booked and we were off to Northern Spain to Pontevedra with the sun shining. The race was held on the university campus and the organisation was superb. The course had everything a cross race should, hurdles, steps, sand, slippery off camber banks and bridges. It was quite difficult for helpers to work out the age group positions as so many 50+ riders and female riders were all starting off at the same time. At the end of the day I came away with a European jersey, the fastest man in Europe in the 80+ age group.
It was then back to The Algarve in Portugal for two weeks of training before the World Championships which involved gym work before breakfast followed by road riding around the hills of Monchique. Incidentally, these are the roads the pros are riding shortly in the Tour of Algarve shortly. Sometimes on the way back, I would pull in some sand riding on the beach where I got some strange looks from tourists. Then it was back home for a few days before the trip to Hamburg where the masters World Championships were to be held.
Just before we arrived in Hamburg, there were showers and a bright rainbow filled the sky (this was surely an omen of what was to come!) with heavy rain falling by the time we got to the hotel. I thought the course would be water logged but surprisingly the practise day was fairly dry as it had drained fairly well.
Race day was bright and sunny which meant that the only section of the course that concerned me was the off camber descent. I decided I would run down this section each lap rather than try and ride it. Unlike the Euros, we started in separate age groups going off at 30 seconds intervals. The organisers had asked all the European age group winners to wear their Euro Champion jerseys so this was a confidence boost for me.
After watching last year’s world champion (Michael Nicolaisen) from Denmark pre-riding, I thought I was going to be in for a tough battle but it turned out not to be the case. After my usual slow start, I hit the first technical area through the sand taking the lead. I never looked back and finished over 9 minutes clear of last years champion to be awarded the rainbow jersey. That makes it rainbow jersey number eleven!
So what next? I did say at the start of the season that this would probably be my last competitive year but I have a sneaky feeling that it might not be. With the Euros taking place in Belgium on a course I rode for GB over fifty years ago, it could be an interesting race.
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