Welcome to the forum
Assen Report
The Ashwell contigent have not arrived yet but are on their way. The first media to come to you shall therefore have to be for me.
http://orbitsw.com/blog/
This is the link for my blog but every day there will be a new video and pictures from the racing
http://orbitsw.com/blog/
This is the link for my blog but every day there will be a new video and pictures from the racing
Comments
Cameron has had an even worse time, breaking a spoke on his race wheels and stripping the threading on his crankset, it has not been his day. Happily all is well and the bike will be operational for the prologue tomorrow. A kilometre dash up and down the canal it is not long but has all the atmosphere and organisational pazzaz as the more important stages.
Apologies for the lack of reports, the web connection is really poor to a point where a lot of people can't even connect.
We've had two events so far; a 1km prologue and tough and fast criterium.
Theo and Cam are in a field of 150 of the best under 16's in europe. They fimished in the 90's in the prologue a truly excellent result in a field split by tenths of seconds. In the criterium Theo hung on doggedly to the back of the back until eventually being broom wagoned. Cam raced well above expectations and finished high in the pack, I'm not sure of position but somewhere around 40th.
Joshua has had a dissapointing start with a 61st in the prologue out of 100 and 57th in the crit. having being broom wagoned in an incident packed race. He punctured early on and there were a number of crashes which caused delays to the pack.
We'll try to post pictures should the link get better.
Richard
Daniel isn't racing this week as he's on a scout jamboree in Denmark
Richard
If you can - there should be an option to "Share this" on each of your photos on Flickr. If you do this - it allows you to copy and paste the HTML link to the pic - making getting them on the forum dead easy - and quick. I could do it for you in a minute - just activate the "Share this". It's all fairly new policy from Flickr on copyright.
I got this from the Flickr site;
http://www.flickr.com/help/photos/#2265887
Go to, You > Your Account > Privacy & Permissions > 'Allow others to share your stuff' YES!
Then the share HTML code is easily found here;
Copy and paste the lot into a forum discussion - and make sure it's Format comment as HTML is selected. EASY! Unlike a prologue with the top European juniors....
Cheers!
Lads (all of them) are enjoying themselves.
Yesterday was the road race featuring the incredible cobbled road. Theo lost time being the wrong side of a crash but made it well across the cobbles (a benchmark) before the broom wagon announced 'Your race is now over'. The time lost to the crash had meant it was impossible to reach the peleton, which completed the 44 mile race at an average speed of 29mph. Part of the time Theo lost was in checking his team mate was okay, beacause alas Cameron went down (with many others) in the early crash and was injured, In the style of Tom Simpson our bloodied hero insisted on being put back on his bike and rode on getting medical and mechanical attention as he went. Inevitably the broom wagon spoke and he set about making his way home. En route he was persauded to get help from an ambulance and so it was in the hospital where Stewart and I finally found him. Cuts to face and knees, but spirits untarnished. So far it looks like he will be strong enough to ride the TT later this afternoon on the Assen TT circuit.
Results and stuff can be found at www.europeanjuniortourassen.nl (or something similar).
Best wishes from us all,
Daniel, Stewart, Theo and Cameron The Brave
see you all soon for full report
Joshua's race went a lot better than yesterday. A seven man break went away early in this 99km race but, in true TdeF manner, got caught inside the last km. Joshua finished in the bunch getting the same time as everybody else. The above two photos show Cam after he was found and J's exhaustion just after he'd taken his helmet off. Joshua's time was 2.35.21. His GC is 63rd out of 99. He is -6min. 10.s.
Theo is 126th in the GC and Cam 98th out of approx. 150.
Richard
Yesterday (day 4) saw all 700, or so, riders taking part in an individual time trial. The U16's and Juniors doing a 8.5km course which started with a technical introduction before opening out onto the Assenn TT motorcycle circuit.
Results are: -
Theo 14:05:28 (106th) (U16)
Cam 13:40:40 (96th) (U16)
Josh 12:32:74 (29th) (Junior)
Today (Day 5) consist of a road race around a 9km loop, which has some viscious cobbles known locally as 'childrens heads'!!
The U16's will do 5 laps and the juniors 6.
Below are three photos from the TT
Yesterday was a hard days racing, Theo finishing 95th and Cam 84th in a crash dominated race which saw other Brit rider Kristian Wolf sidelined with injuries and a broken mech hanger.
Joshua had a good race acting as domestic for two riders in his team who are higer up the GC than him. he finished in the pack in 49th position.
Today sees the last day of racing which is a furious crit circuit in Assen. See you all when we get back .
Richard
The last race saw the crit. as described above. below are a couple of photos.
For a flavour of the last day watch this, it's posted by someone else
On general classification
Theo was 116 out of 133 finishers
Cam was 84 out of 133 finishers
Joshua was 53 out of 93 finishers
Richard
Is anyone reading this or for that matter is anyone interested. Let me know by posting here and any ideas you may have for future Youth Racing reports.
I and the boys would love to here your feedback.
Richard
http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/3470/gi4.mp4
well done Theo, Josh and Cam.