Donkey Cross make it's debut!
The women’s cross coaching and riding collective Calamity Cross, with some help from Happy Trails Cross Collective, ran Donkey Cross last Sunday.
Hosted by Tweed Horizons Business Centre in the Borders, this Go-Cross grassroots race saw riders from ages 5-72 enjoy a fantastic day of racing in the Autumn sun.
The U8 and U10 course looked great fun, in and out of the trees, a spiral of doom decorated with loads of Halloween skeletons and pumpkins. Thanks to FJBC, Royal Albert, and Stirling BC for making the trip to the Borders with their U12 and U14 riders; Boo Williams, Lilly Wright, Ally Clifford were on the U14 Female podium; Zoe Martin and Flora Addis for the U12s. In the Open race Oscar Newton and Cosmo Quirton-Aitkin were the top two.
The course was varied, a mix of terraced lawn, a ‘burial mound’ as well as woodland, old orchard and fields made it a full test of the cyclocross skillset. Thanks to the rain this week it cut up quite a bit!
As this was a Go-Cross event the organisers wanted to spread this wonderful sport to a new audience, and so added a few B Lines for the newbies - a great success.
In the Female race Tricia Bell took the win in the M70 class (her first CX race!), Jane Sargent in the 60s, in the M50 Lizelle Kemp and Roslynn Newman for V40; the overall podium was topped by Monica Anderson from Livingston CC.
The Open race followed on what was now a mix of fast short grass and downhill rutted slope – add a set of steps and a gravel climb and there were some very tired legs! In the 70s James Blyth (Berwick Wheelers) took the win, Colin Shearer (MRCC) the 60s and Peter Houston the 50s. The Open podium was Charles Fletcher, Euan Scott and Eddie Addis (V40). A special mention to U16 Josh Buchan (Pentland Racers) who was in the top three until a mechanical and broken bars took him out of the race. He showed his class however by winning the Donkey Cross Handicap race with ease on his pit-bike!
We can’t run these events without marshals, so thanks to all who volunteered to bring CX racing across all ages to the Borders. And of course the Calamity and HTCC team who had been strimming, lopping and raking for weeks to make a new course. Our very generous sponsors were: Clelands Volvo, Galashiels, Hardies Bikes of Melrose (who also provided a new bike to raffle!), Craigdon Mountain Sports, Durty Brewing of Innerliethen, Smartwool, and Tweed Horizons Business Centre who let us into the woods to make a CX course! Braw Barista kept the hot chocolate and coffee flowing all day. Scottish Cycling very generously provided a grant to support CX – we now have 700 recycled plastic stakes in the Borders to help with future offroad events.
Give us a moment for the raking blisters to heal and to get the smell of two-stroke out of our clothes, and we’ll let you know about Donkey Cross 2026!
