Video

Thank you 🙂

Thank you Kieran 🙂

Nick Craig is phenomenal! How a 53 year old consistantly beats the mass majority of the field is remarkable. My son Sam is 20 this week and one of his goals is to be racing at a high level in his 40s. It suddenly dawned on him this week, that if he wanted to be winning races then, he'd have to be able to race quicker then than he is now, as Nick is still beating him. Sam has managed to beat Nick on the dry fast courses, but as soon as you throw some mud in to the equation, Nick is just a joy to watch as he ploughs through the field in front of him.

@@RichardHowesPhotography a very worthy goal for Sam, Nick is a phenomenal role model.

It was a great race! Well worth watching back.

I know how you feel. I did my first cyclo-cross race about 30 years ago and I thought that's enough and have never raced it since 🙂 I love the sport now though, from a spectator, supporter, photographer point of view. I don't think there's a better cycle race to watch. It's just constant hard acceleration, brake, hard acceleration again and amongst that mud, sand, off cambers, steps or anything else the course designers can think of. I take my hat off to all who race it. It's an epic sport

Partly bad luck, but equally his pressures were too low for the hard drop on to tarmac. They were fine in practice, but you always go harder in a race. 2psi more next year 🙂

Haha, there were definitely some team tactics going on, but fortunately there were only two for Sam to contend with 😀

Thanks Lewis, your comment is much appreciated as we've been watching your fine skills up close for the last 5 years. I remember at the World Masters last year struggling to comprehend how you could be SO much visibly faster than anyone else through the twisty and slippy wood section. That really showcased your bike handling. That's really interesting about the insert, and especially as it's home made! I'd always dismissed them after watching a review of them for MTB wheels. The conclusion then (3 years ago), seemed to be perfect for getting you home, but too much of a comprimise for XC racing. I think I should get a pair for Sam to experiment with. We've just had 4 Challenge TLR Baby Limus tyres delivered today. One pair will go on one bike and the other 2 for spares. On first inspection, they look a great fast rolling and mud clearing tyre, as they are very similar to the Donnelly PDX WC tread pattern that Sam has been using up to now. However, the tread blocks look 2mm taller on the PDX tyres, so we'll see if the shallower Baby Limus tyres makes any difference at Paignton as Sam can test two identical bikes with the different tyre set ups.

I'm glad you're enjoying them 🙂This won't be a quick reply Dave as tyres are one of my favourite subjects! I had 7 years working in the tyre trade in my early career (fitting, then sales rep), so ever since I have studied tread patterns, carcass construction and rubber firmness, whether it's for my car, motorbike, race bike, or push bikes. Tyres are the one thing that keep us in contact with the ground, so I don't see the point in skimping on them. However.... Sam can use anything he likes as he's a club rider and I'll buy him any kit he needs, or he could buy it himself as he works and saves well, but the tubeless tyres he has been using over the years have been really fantastic for him. When he started as an first year under 14 he ran tubes and clinchers like everyone else. In his second year him and his brother punctured 5 times between them through thorns or similar, so we converted to tubeless tyres and have never had any issues up until the nationals this season. Finding out what pressure you can run without burping is part of the learning curve as it will differ for all, due to weight and force. He found when he was using the original Donnelly PDX tyres as a youth he could run 25psi and anything lower would burp, but they were only 120tpi sidewalls. When he was a junior and we found the 33mm PDX tyres actually measured 35mm wide so failed a UCI check at a National Trophy, we switched to the more expensive Donnelly PDX WC with 240tpi sidewalls. These have been fantastic tyres and Sam has always been able to run 22psi with no issues. He can run lower, but if he hits anything hard he will pinch puncture the sidewall. I know some people with tubs will run mid teens, but I really question if they need to. When Sam tried a set of tubs from Dave Earth at Crawley as a Junior, he was lapping no faster on the bike that had those, than the bike that had his PDX tubeless tyres. 3 weeks ago we bought a new track pump with an LCD display and my conclusion from the last two races, is the old guage was either running 1-2psi innaccurate and over reading, hence why Sam's tyres have only just started burping again after 3 years without a hiccup; or it could just be as Sam is now faster and stronger than he has ever been, he can of course generate more force through the corners and that is needing the extra 1psi. The PDX WC tyres, Sam has had fitted to both bikes for every race for the last 3 and half seasons have unfortunately been out of stock everywhere for the last 11 months, so for Paignton he will have one bike on PDX WC and one on Baby Limus which are a very similar pattern, so it will be interesting to see how they compare. One thing I can tell you is the Challenge tyres are a lot tighter fit on the rim than the Donnelly tyres, and they are also have 25% more threads in the sidewall, which will make them more supple, so they may be able to be run 1 or 2 psi lower, but we will see. I do think far too many people are too conservative in their tyre choices. I'll never forget the national champs at Hetton Lyons. You'll remember how muddy that was in places and a good friend of ours and a top 20 rider in the Elite race was running a rear tyre that looked like a motocross tyre, the blocks were so square and deep. However, in the race before which Helen Wyman won, I photographed her muddied bike next to the podium and noticed she was on file treads. I asked how on earth she could run those when most people I knew ran full mud tyres. She said, when you are running through mud, it doesn't matter what tyres are on your bike, but for the few other sections where I my lose a little time, I more than make that up on all the fast rolling sections. I think that's some of the best cross advice I've ever heard. If you watch Sam's videos, you will see he will often lose time on the straights (as he's not a roadie) but fast rolling tyres definitely help minimise it for him. He does however always make up lots of time through the corners. This shows that along with his great technique, he has plenty of corner grip from his tyres. I am sure a couple of pairs of tubular wheels with full muds may be helpful for racing once or twice a year tops, but the extra expense can't be justified for such little use and such little gain. On top of that, as a photographer, I'm not sure many weekends go by without me seeing someone roll a tub, never mind all those that puncture. It's old technology for me and having tubeless tyres that seal themselves most the time, is a lot more beneficial for most of the races through a season. At Westmoreland last season when Toby Barnes and Joseph Blackmore had a sprint finish for the win, both were running Schwalbe X-One tubeless tyres and Joe's tyres were the stock ones that came out the box with the bike from Canyon. Although slippy, that was the driest I have seen your course by a long way though. What I would recommend if you are having tubeless issues, is check your rims and tyres are ETRTO compatible. The NEW Challenge tyres that we ordered are made to that standard, hence why they are tighter fit on Sam's rims than the PDX WC tyres which aren't.

@@RichardHowesPhotography Hahaaaa I know you see rolled tubs a lot - but that doesn't really happen once you've learned to stick them properly. Great to see Sam progressing so well anyway - he's getting dead strong now. FWIW I hopped the hurdles in warm up and instantly decided it was way too far to the pit if I ended up clattering one in the race and puncturing, so not worth the risk. But that's the wisdom that comes with (extensive!) age. :-)

Thank you 🙂

Thank you Paul 🙂

The tyres are Donnelly PDX WC, but this race was probably the last time Sam will have them fitted to both bikes as I haven't been able to buy any more for the last 11 months. The tyres are a very similar pattern to a Challenge Baby Limus, so that is what I've ordered going forward. For the next race in Devon, Sam will have one bike on the PDX WC and one bike on the Baby Limus, so it will be interesting to see how they compare. No inserts and pressures for Sam who weighs around 10st/63kg can be run as low as 20psi but the softer the pressure, the more issue you have with rim strikes puncturing the sidewall. Over the years 22psi has been perfect for him, but for the first time he burped his rears on both bikes on the same corner at that pressure in South Shields, hence asking for 23psi in the video. The reason for this specific tyre and why tubeless over tubular is a combination of cost and technology. The only benefit I see to tubular tyres are in the deep mud when you can run pressures lower than tubeless, but how many really sloppy mud races do you do in a season? It doesn't justify the expense for me. For any other race conditions, I prefer tubeless as any standard puncture to the tyre by a thorn or similar is just sealed in seconds with the sealant and should you need to change the tyre on a rim, you can do it in 5 minutes, so you don't need stacks of rims. Added to that, as a photographer, I used to nearly always see someone with a rolled tub in a race. It's getting a little less common now as more people switch to tubeless. Sam has run these tyres on both bikes for every race for the last 3 years. They are perfect for all condtions as they have a very fast rolling centre line of tread blocks, but a very open tread pattern away from the centre line, so great at dispersing mud. They then also have good size cornering tread blocks (as per the baby limus), so give great corner grip. One last thing to note about the Donnelly PDX WC is don't confuse it with the standard Donnelly PDX tyre. The standard PDX is exactly the same tread pattern, but although it states 33mm on the sidewall, it measures wider, which we found out to our peril when Sam went from youth to Junior races as the UCI commissaires will check tyre width. They are also a 120tpi thread count in the sidewall, so the lowest they could be run at for Sam was 25psi before they burped as the sidewall wasn't as flexible. For local league races or for non UCI races, they are perfectly fine though and that is what we run on my wife's and other son's cross bikes.

Donnelly PDX WC www.donnellycycling.com/products/pdx-wc-700-x-33-tubeless-ready-clincher?variant=29665474216049 Do you race at all Andy?

I've had 6 or 7 people tell me how much they loved the technical nature of the course. I just love the variety of course designs, conditions and locations that you get through a season 🙂

perfect lap 👍🏼

I know! It appears only vets and youths are good enough to ride it 😁 As conditions got sketchier, it was taken out, along with other sections to reduce the length of the lap times.

Thanks Sam. The rider is my son Samuel Howes from Sleaford Wheelers. He's a first year U23.

Yep he good n a nice lad to boot