Battle on the Beach

Last weekend, a group of WVCC riders made what is becoming an annual pilgrimage to Pembrey Country Park in South Wales for the ‘Battle on the Beach’ cycle race.

On Saturday, Mea Moore once again took to the start for the fourth year in a row. Now 12 years old and competing in her first year of the U14 category, Mea lined up on a mixed grid of boys and girls. After a steady start, she finished the first lap in 4th place overall and set about hunting down the leaders. Growing more comfortable on her mountain bike after a winter of cyclocross—and buoyed by the cheers of WVCC seniors and friends—she pushed on. With three laps to go, she caught the lead girl. And after nearly 30 minutes of close racing, she sprinted to the line to win the female category and claim a superb 2nd place overall.

For Sunday’s main event, WVCC veterans Simon Askham, Daniel Mcdonnell, James Moore, Rob Moore, and Hans van Nierop lined up as seeded riders, having finished in the top 100 overall the previous year. They were joined by Josh van Nierop, hoping for a trouble-free race, and first-timer Jason Williams. They lined up alongside nearly 1,100 other riders for the mass start.

As the steel drum band built the tension, the start horn blew. 1,100 riders sprinted, ran, scooted, hopped, and stumbled to move from the soft, dry dune edges onto the firmer, wet sand closer to the sea. After three miles of riding into a lighter-than-usual headwind, the pack had strung out. Those racing aimed to exit the beach at the MOD base—which grants special access for race day only—as high up the field as possible. James led the way, coming off the sandy access road inside the top 10, while the others navigated the chaos of bikes and riders funnelled into a two-meter-wide bottleneck further back.

The race then turned “full gravel” as it swung onto the MOD access roads. Due to the wet winter, many tracks were flooded, so the beach was used again on the return leg to avoid the worst of the water. This required going “full cyclocross” and running over soft dunes before heading into the technical singletrack of the country park to finish the lap.

After approximately 30 minutes, James completed the first lap with the lead group in 7th place. However, the effort took its toll; he lost touch with the elite front group on the return to the beach and was eventually caught by the second pack. After an entertaining battle with UK off-road icon Nick Craig, James finished 12th overall, losing out to “Craigy” by a handful of seconds to take 2nd in the Veteran race.

Simon, Rob, and Hans somehow found each other in the melee and worked well together throughout the race, only splitting up during the final half-lap of singletrack. They finished as the 10th, 14th, and 15th Veterans, respectively. Dan followed close behind in 27th, and Jason completed his first outing in 37th. Josh, unfortunately still finding no luck in the sand, suffered a puncture. He repaired it with help from a friendly Rockingham Forest rider and finished, in one piece, 414th overall.

Everyone will be back again next year for another go at what is a truly unique event!