2015 Road race Report

“15th March 2015.

Once again we were lucky with the weather. A full field of 80 riders on the day.

A great race with a good field with Madison Genesis and NFTO putting out teams amongst others. Having learnt the harsh lesson of the Raleigh walk over in 2014 we restricted the teams so they were all of an equal size (so no numerical advantage). It went off at a ridiculous pace with most of the lower cat riders being shot out the back. We did not have any problems with local motorists or horse riders this year and we had several breakaways but they were all bought back. Finally a select group got away on the last lap with a sprint for the line, alas Ben Stockdale missed out by half a wheel. The only fly in the ointment was a crash on the race to the line in which two riders ended up well of the road, both went to hospital, one with bad lacerations to the arm another with chipped vertebrae and a broken jaw. (they did make a full recovery) We were complimented by the chief Commissaire for the organisation of the signing on (Graham Walker doing a great job here) and the excellent Marshals.

Improvements for 2016 will be decent tea, coffee and refreshments from the moment the HQ opens, radios on the corners so Marshals get more notice of the approaching race and each corner to have its own broom

Can I make an appeal for Marshals for 2016 race which will be on Sunday 13th March, we are always rushing around last thing for Marshals so it would be great to get a decent number signed up beforehand”.