So Round 8 of the cyclo-cross was hosted by Kettering Cycling Club and held at the leisure centre in Desborough.
We used to drive through Desborough fairly frequently on our visits to my wife's family in Leicester. It holds a special place in our personal history because a road traffic accident in Desborough around 1984, witnessed by my future wife, was the cause of us meeting after Leicestershire Police sent a request down to Hertfordshire to take a statement from her and I was the one who got the job of interviewing her.
Anyway, a quick journey up the A1 and a very empty A14 saw me arriving at Desborough Leisure Centre just as the kids races had started. The car park was full so I had to park on the nearby estate and lug my gear down to the leisure centre.
Although the day started out dry, rain was in the air and once it started it didn't stop for the rest of the day. The track was much different to Letchworth and Houghton Regis; there were more hills and a section through the woods which turned into a mud bath. It made for many more crashes than the previous two rounds and I did station myself at a couple of likely crash points a few times during the day.
Shooting in the rain always makes it more difficult. I try to always use my rain covers, though I'm not convinced they are actually very waterproof these days. Changing lenses in the rain can be problematic too, but I managed my way through and came up with 2,517 final images, every one edited individually.
