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Ike Saul RR
I'm not the most qualified to report up on this one as I only managed 5 miles of it. The race got off to a bad start in the neutralised section, as one of the lead cars got stuck behind half of the pack, splitting the bunch up quite significantly and ending up with one rider on the back of the lead cars and a 200 yard gap between them and the rest of the riders before the race was even de-neutralised. The marshalling was unimpressive for the whole race, apparently. My only other experience of it was that there was no marshal before a very slippery corner to warn riders to slow down. On the first lap, it appears that pretty much everybody went down on this corner. The first stretch of road after the main road section was covered in a really odd film of what felt like ice, sending a junior from PCH down in front of me (I rode right over him before coming down on top of him) about 4 miles in. After getting my chain back on I sat on the back of the wheel van for about a mile down straight roads with my back wheel skipping all over the place on the road surface, nothing felt safe at all and it was only confirmed when I got to the next corner and went flying down the road again, smashing my hip in the process. As I got up and decided that 2 crashes was enough, letting a load of pressure out of my tyres so I could pootle back to the HQ I saw a couple of bottles on the side of the road with CC Ashwell written on, obviously there'd been a bit of a crash there before I got there too.
As I was chatting to a couple of other riders who had come off on that corner and decided to head back, quite a few riders came past the other way looking a bit dejected, so I can only assume that there were more crashes up this road which didn't dry off till the 3rd or 4th lap. One of my mates described it as "a bit whacky races", I'd have to agree, have never seen so many people go flying in the first few miles of a race.
Cam did indeed come down, but jumped back on, grabbed a water bottle from the van and managed to get back on to the back of the bunch before puncturing, waiting 6 minutes for the wheel van who then gave him a wheel with adult gearing on so even if he had managed to finish well, he would have been disqualified anyway. So he came back to the HQ, not looking so fresh. Kudos for getting back on, very unlucky to puncture after that! Back at the HQ riders were coming back in dribs and drabs either from being dropped or crashing, one chap from Arbis-Colbert had a wrist the size of a grapefruit from the very first crash, but had managed to chase back on for 2 and a half laps before the pain got too much.
One of the luton boys came back at the end covered in coffee after a passing 4x4 driver chucked a half full cup into the bunch when they were overtaking them on the main road and a rather large lorry had beeped a lot before pulling in between the bunch and a chase group, then slowing down, then overtaking the chase group and giving them a pull down the main road. I guess this is all part of racing on the open road!
As far as the actual race was concerned, it looked like a strong group got away at the beginning, 5 or 6 riders formed a good breakaway and kept away for the whole race, mirroring last week's Crest. Apparently there was a fair bit of negative riding from some of the guys who had people in the break, especially towards the end of the race, when it was obvious that they weren't going to catch the break people were still getting (unnecessarily) pulled back and blocked by a couple of strong riders. This didn't stop Luton's John Peters from jumping off the front of the bunch and staying away to take a commendable 6th place and Anthony Morris leading out the sprint (from about 1km and still managing to hold them off!) to take 9th. Another top result for Ant, keeping CCA in the top 15 for two weeks on the trot and moving further up the results... Big things still to come from Ant I think, who read the race well and proved that he's one of the stronger riders so far this season.
As I was chatting to a couple of other riders who had come off on that corner and decided to head back, quite a few riders came past the other way looking a bit dejected, so I can only assume that there were more crashes up this road which didn't dry off till the 3rd or 4th lap. One of my mates described it as "a bit whacky races", I'd have to agree, have never seen so many people go flying in the first few miles of a race.
Cam did indeed come down, but jumped back on, grabbed a water bottle from the van and managed to get back on to the back of the bunch before puncturing, waiting 6 minutes for the wheel van who then gave him a wheel with adult gearing on so even if he had managed to finish well, he would have been disqualified anyway. So he came back to the HQ, not looking so fresh. Kudos for getting back on, very unlucky to puncture after that! Back at the HQ riders were coming back in dribs and drabs either from being dropped or crashing, one chap from Arbis-Colbert had a wrist the size of a grapefruit from the very first crash, but had managed to chase back on for 2 and a half laps before the pain got too much.
One of the luton boys came back at the end covered in coffee after a passing 4x4 driver chucked a half full cup into the bunch when they were overtaking them on the main road and a rather large lorry had beeped a lot before pulling in between the bunch and a chase group, then slowing down, then overtaking the chase group and giving them a pull down the main road. I guess this is all part of racing on the open road!
As far as the actual race was concerned, it looked like a strong group got away at the beginning, 5 or 6 riders formed a good breakaway and kept away for the whole race, mirroring last week's Crest. Apparently there was a fair bit of negative riding from some of the guys who had people in the break, especially towards the end of the race, when it was obvious that they weren't going to catch the break people were still getting (unnecessarily) pulled back and blocked by a couple of strong riders. This didn't stop Luton's John Peters from jumping off the front of the bunch and staying away to take a commendable 6th place and Anthony Morris leading out the sprint (from about 1km and still managing to hold them off!) to take 9th. Another top result for Ant, keeping CCA in the top 15 for two weeks on the trot and moving further up the results... Big things still to come from Ant I think, who read the race well and proved that he's one of the stronger riders so far this season.
Comments
A bunch of us saw a couple of laps and the finish. Lots of traffic on the course. Great sprint from Ant, no one coming around him right from the bottom of the hill. Good work.
This race used to be in July so maybe lot of things are different....wish I had the reg of that 4x4!
Get hydrocolloid or alginate plasters, only way to treat road rash. Think of it as fixing a tubular tyre.
In the US, they even use brine from cheese-making to de-ice their roads. (I'm guessing that they strip out slippery fatty contaminants first, but who knows)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/road-salt-alternatives-include-cheese-brine-molasses-1.2468744
Also hope that British Cycling is already aware of this ... and able to advise/lobby on 'safe' types of grit/salt for councils to use?
http://www.velouk.net/2014/03/10/result-ike-saul-road-race-2/