MK Bowl 4th Cat - surviving the crashfest

Southgate

FLYING SPOKES

Milton Keynes Crashfest. Race Report, Saturday 15 March 2014

Kidney-shaped with no hairpins, Milton Keynes Bowl is a fast track. The loop is around a kilometre or so and there is one short climb and one descent. Neither are particularly taxing or technical. Yet that didn’t stop a few Muppets deliberately attempting stupid manoeuvres and forcing some (very angry) riders off onto the grass on more than one occasion.

A special mention has to go to the Mother-of-all-Muppets: a middle aged male ped in a hat. For some unfathomable reason, this blithering idiot waited till the race began and then decided to take a stroll down the middle of the race track, forcing the entire peloton to weave round him on both sides at high speed!

Where possible I stayed towards the front of the bunch, generally amongst the top 20 or so wheels. That meant 60+ riders behind. It was a big field. The pace was furious from the off, with speeds into the mid to late 30s on the downhill section. But I was feeling good and instead of hanging on, I was picking wheels to follow and making decisions on when and where to move up. This could finally be the day when it all came together.

With two laps to go, I had moved into about 15th and I was looking around for my teammate Paul, but I couldn’t see him. A couple of minutes later, the bell was sounded and the race was on for real. Of course, everyone wanted to be near the front but the design of the course and an 80 strong field made moving up difficult. I was exactly where I wanted to be, and I wasn't going anywhere for anybody. Certainly not backwards.

As we rounded the turn for the uphill sprint to the finish, I suddenly saw Paul to my right. He had put the hammer down and was moving up fast. A few of the small group of riders in front of us had already pressed the green button. But they had made their move a shade early and they were coming back towards me.

I was watching everything like a cat waiting to pounce. For a change my legs felt turbo-charged, my breathing was steady and I knew for sure that if I timed my sprint right, I was guaranteed a top 10 finish and maybe even better. I wasn’t even close to being in the red. Hell no, I wasn’t even in the pink!

With 60 to 100 metres to go, I moved off the wheel I was on, with the aim of jumping on Paul’s wheel and then opening up with explosive power. I think we must have been moving at over 30-something mph at that point.

BANG!

WTF?

The gunshot-like bang a few yards in front of me was so loud, I couldn’t mentally process what I was hearing. I even thought it might have been a gunshot! Perhaps the long-suffering Mrs Southgate had finally had enough of being a cycling-widow and decided she might as well become a real one! Of course, it was an exploding tyre, but I didn’t know that at the time.

What happened next, happened very, very fast, although curiously it felt like slow-motion. The bang was immediately followed by a shout, and then the unmistakeable sound of splintering carbon and wheels. Bits of debris flew skywards as two or three riders directly in front of me hit the deck at high speed. The noise was like a car crash, and the pungent odour of seared tires and broken bikes is something I won't be forgetting in a hurry.

I braked hard, all the time leaning the bike to right like I was taking a hairpin at Hillingdon. Yes! Missed the first rider by a whisker. Jeez, he looked in a bad way. Then another rider went down into my space, as the crash fanned across the road in a mini-domino effect.

This time I had to do some improvised cyclo-cross to avoid him, and I veered right off the track at right angles and onto the grass, heading towards the hedge. I managed to straighten up the bike, turn it round and slowly spin up the last 50 metres to finish, knowing my points had long since evaporated.

I didn’t see what happened to Paul, but thankfully he too survived unscathed, having ridden over the wheel of a crashed bike. His points were also gone. We didn’t rubber-neck the crash, but miraculously no-one was seriously injured. Maybe a collar bone or two from what I could gather.

Well that’s racing for you, and the chase for points continues. Most of all though, I’m just relieved to have escaped in one piece. Oh, and I picked up a nice souvenir from the track to remind me of today. The twisted piece of spoke you see in the photo.

paul2718

I'm pretty sure there were no significant injuries, I stopped on the cool down, in case it was a friend who'd been nearer the front and I could help.

You would have missed the guy going into the hedge at the bottom of the last climb, the only problem was that he didn't actually crash and managed to return back to the track in a cloud of debris.

I think quite a few of the wobbles in the group were to do with lapped riders not being aware enough of what was coming.

Paul

Southgate

Glad to hear no-one was badly hurt. It's hard to tell from one split second glance when you're in the middle of a crash - it looked horrible though.

alihisgreat

80 riders at MK doesn't sound like much fun.

I did Castle Combe 3rds with 80 on Sunday which is much more open and still had one of those "wtf am I doing here - I'm going to die" moments when I slipped back into the second half of the bunch to take a gel!

Southgate

^ Haha... the irony is that I only entered cos I thought it would be a small field. I think the 80 took everyone by surprise, incl the organisers

alihisgreat

Southgate wrote:

^ Haha... the irony is that I only entered cos I thought it would be a small field. I think the 80 took everyone by surprise, incl the organisers

They had a limit of 60 for the 4ths at Castle Combe... I wonder if that's self imposed or BC regulations?

paul2718

The British Cycling Regulations, Road, 20.3.1, reads,

Road 20.3.1 wrote:

Circuit races and closed circuit criteriums may be scratch or handicap events, and the maximum number of starters shall be prescribed by the Region in whose area the circuit is located.

Paul

ongej

Glad to know that you were not injured southgate... Its rather strange this year, everywhere seems to be having "record turnouts"... Even in places where there are traditionally few riders like Preston Park (I heard there was only 9 cat 4s at one race, nice!), they are fully booked, the first time, they even had to split the race into 2 separate races due to the numbers. The race at psychopark (aka cyclopark) a few weeks ago was also fully booked (70 +30 riders?), again something which according to the organisers has never happened before.

ju5t1n

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

Southgate wrote:

^ Haha... the irony is that I only entered cos I thought it would be a small field. I think the 80 took everyone by surprise, incl the organisers

They had a limit of 60 for the 4ths at Castle Combe... I wonder if that's self imposed or BC regulations?

I've seen a 4ths race at Castle Combe with 175 riders in it, it's down to the organisers I think

mpatts

I'm glad you survived - this is the thing that worries me most of all about racing.

Do you mind if I ask a few questions about the race, as it was my first one?

I was surprised by a couple of things, and would be interested to understand if this is the norm.

1) The pace was higher than I expected (although I think this was exacerbated by the big concertina effect)
2) The group was much bigger than I expected - what's the normal turnout (2013)?

I'm back at the bowl on Saturday.

ju5t1n

1) the pace is always faster than you expect!
2) the 3/4 evening race is normally 30 – 40 riders

DeVlaeminck

Our upcoming road race was more than twice over subscribed. Numbers will drop off as the season progresses, they always do, some will get understandably scared of the crash risk and some will realise they just aren't quick enough. It is a problem though, as cycling booms we need more races to accommodate the boom. I think this is where racers should be thankful for sportives, I know they aren't races as such but they are an outlet for people who want to test the,selves on a bike, if only 10% of regular sportivists who don't race took up racing you'd have to enter races months in advance.

wallace_and_gromit

Southgate wrote:

I wasn’t even close to being in the red. Hell no, I wasn’t even in the pink!

The gunshot-like bang a few yards in front of me was so loud, I couldn’t mentally process what I was hearing. I even thought it might have been a gunshot! Perhaps the long-suffering Mrs Southgate had finally had enough of being a cycling-widow and decided she might as well become a real one!

Thanks for a lively write-up. I thought it was all really good, but the two bits above made me laugh out loud at work. Chapeau to you, Sir!

Southgate

mpatts wrote:

I'm glad you survived - this is the thing that worries me most of all about racing.

Do you mind if I ask a few questions about the race, as it was my first one?

I was surprised by a couple of things, and would be interested to understand if this is the norm.

1) The pace was higher than I expected (although I think this was exacerbated by the big concertina effect)
2) The group was much bigger than I expected - what's the normal turnout (2013)?

I'm back at the bowl on Saturday.

Hi mpatts

I only started racing in December and my previous experience is limited to Hillingdon and one 'hot dog' crit at the Excel. The fields at Hillingdon were limited to 60, and the Excel race to 25.

I can only speak for myself, but I didn't find the pace at MK particularly fast, given that it's not a technical course and you can take the bends at full pelt. I think average speed was just under 25mph, which is pretty much what all my races so far have been.

But it's not the averages that kill you. It's the surges and then having to recover at race speeds. If it's any comfort, I was dying in my first two races and hanging on for dear life. Now I am comfortable in the bunch and it's now more about learning race craft, picking the right wheels, making the right moves, and having a bit of luck on the day.

You're probably already very fit, but perhaps like I was, not specifically fit for racing crits. Try to structure your training around intervals, so go hard, recover, hard, recover and so on. Also just doing the races will go a long way to getting you race fit. The second thing that will make the race easier is to make sure you're almost always on a wheel, and get as close as you can whilst staying safe. And yes, you're right about the concertina effect, so try and stay towards the front third of the bunch if you can.

Finally, I would say: don't rush it. It will come in time. There's a lot of new things to learn but it will start to click after a few races. It did for me. Then you will have a better idea of what you're getting right and what you're getting wrong, and you can make more informed decisions about training, tactics and so forth. I'm reading the races better now, and I'm now finishing in the top third each time and hopefully soon in amongst the points.

mpatts

Southgate wrote:

mpatts wrote:

I'm glad you survived - this is the thing that worries me most of all about racing.

Do you mind if I ask a few questions about the race, as it was my first one?

I was surprised by a couple of things, and would be interested to understand if this is the norm.

1) The pace was higher than I expected (although I think this was exacerbated by the big concertina effect)
2) The group was much bigger than I expected - what's the normal turnout (2013)?

I'm back at the bowl on Saturday.

Hi mpatts

I only started racing in December and my previous experience is limited to Hillingdon and one 'hot dog' crit at the Excel. The fields at Hillingdon were limited to 60, and the Excel race to 25.

I can only speak for myself, but I didn't find the pace at MK particularly fast, given that it's not a technical course and you can take the bends at full pelt. I think average speed was just under 25mph, which is pretty much what all my races so far have been.

But it's not the averages that kill you. It's the surges and then having to recover at race speeds. If it's any comfort, I was dying in my first two races and hanging on for dear life. Now I am comfortable in the bunch and it's now more about learning race craft, picking the right wheels, making the right moves, and having a bit of luck on the day.

You're probably already very fit, but perhaps like I was, not specifically fit for racing crits. Try to structure your training around intervals, so go hard, recover, hard, recover and so on. Also just doing the races will go a long way to getting you race fit. The second thing that will make the race easier is to make sure you're almost always on a wheel, and get as close as you can whilst staying safe. And yes, you're right about the concertina effect, so try and stay towards the front third of the bunch if you can.

Finally, I would say: don't rush it. It will come in time. There's a lot of new things to learn but it will start to click after a few races. It did for me. Then you will have a better idea of what you're getting right and what you're getting wrong, and you can make more informed decisions about training, tactics and so forth. I'm reading the races better now, and I'm now finishing in the top third each time and hopefully soon in amongst the points.

Thanks for the above - excellent advice in there.

paul2718

I can only speak for myself, but I didn't find the pace at MK particularly fast, given that it's not a technical course and you can take the bends at full pelt. I think average speed was just under 25mph, which is pretty much what all my races so far have been.

This is the Strava of the winner on the 8th, he was 4th last Saturday.

http://www.strava.com/activities/118789491

Average on the 8th 36.4kmh, 15th 40.6kmh. And people are travelling a long way for a race on a generally uninspiring circuit...

Paul

ongej

Some more interesting things about crit style races.. When I looked at the power at 40-60minute races ( e.g. Hillingdon, Longcross), it was rather low... NP for the race was about 190 watts (like a club ride!) ... and about 85% well below recovery power (< 160watts), about 10% was time trial pace, and 5% was > 500watts... unfortunately, the 500-700watts were at every corner, and were worst (nearly 800watts) due to technique and positioning... and it occurred at least once every minute... they lasted very short, about 2-5 seconds, but the killer is not the sprint, its what happened after, which is riders putting the hurt down after the corner for about 10-20 seconds (time trial pace, after all out sprint)... This caused my heart rate to go high, and not recover fast enough before the next sprint... and eventually this accumulates and boom, off the back...

Now my previous training focused on sweet spot, time trial, vo2max and stuff like that, raising my hour power, which was great for time-trial.. but didn't train the sprint-then-time-trial bit... even intervals on my own. Intervals were sprint-rest-sprint-rest... instead of sprint-vo2max-time-trial-rest... trying to replicate this form of training on your own can sometimes be a bit difficult due to motivation0 (e.g. I'll be thinking: its too painful, I've done "as much as I am capable of"). But if you have other riders going full pelt in front of you in a race, you'll have no time to think of the pain (must be a survival instinct thing), but just dish out high-power intervals, much higher than you could on your own, and with greater frequency... this form of "race training" was what allowed me to eventually stay with the bunch.

Oh, and not carrying a full bottle when you only drink like 1/5 of it during the race helps too...

herzog

ongej wrote:

...instead of sprint-vo2max-time-trial-rest... trying to replicate this form of training on your own can sometimes be a bit difficult due to motivation0 (e.g. I'll be thinking: its too painful, I've done "as much as I am capable of")...

Allen and Coggan "race winning intervals" should help. Horrible to do, but great training!!

Southgate

^ Very good advice from ongej