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Morvelo CityCross 2 comes to Halifax Piece HallMorvelo CityCross-VecchioJo SandTrap - Picture © Joolze Dymond

Morvelo CityCross 2 comes to Halifax Piece Hall

Gala cyclo-cross race takes over historic landmark
by John Stevenson
Tue, Oct 08, 2013 11:53
5

After a successful inaugural event in March, the Morvelo CityCross will return to Halifax on November 9, and this time they’ve got themselves a Grade One listed building to play in, Halifax Piece Hall.

The first CityCross was originally planned to takle place in a disused mill, but the owner withdrawing permission to use it forced a change of venue to Old Shroggs Tip, but the organisers rallied and out on a well-regarded event nevertheless. This time, they’re returning to the original building-centred idea.

Organisers Oli and Dave said: “CityCross as a format is designed so it can be taken anywhere, but not in our wildest dreams did we think it would end up in a Grade 1 listed building!”

They have free rein to use all of the Piece Hall. The only fully intact cloth hall in the UK, it was built in 1779 for the trading of locally made, hand-woven “pieces” of woollen cloth. Its original purpose disappeared with the coming of industrialisation and by 1815, the building was being used as venue for political meetings and public spectaculars.

The second CityCross will feature cobbles, kerbs, jumps, grass, barriers and racing along the illuminated corridors when it gets dark. If you get hungry you’ll be able to tuck into wood-fired pizza, hog roast, fish and chips and a wide range of beer and coffee. They'll be a Joolze Dymond photo exhibition and numerous brands on display on the third floor, which also acts as a viewing gallery.

There are categories for children, women, men, vets, seniors and novices all of which have their own races.

For full details see the CityCross website.

Morvelo
Halifax Piece hall
Halifax
cyclo-cross
CityCross
John Stevenson

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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