My Race report - CASP HC series - Race 2
JesseD
Posts: 1,961
Crit race last night which was handicapped, the course is a 1.5km cycle track around a big field at a sports centre, the course is ok, a little bit technical but generally quite fast, it does have a long start finish straight which is quite wide with lots of run off area all around the track apart from a section which is between some trees.
I live in Jersey in the Channel Islands so we don’t have a Cat system like the UK, but do have a divisional system which goes from division 1 (highest) through to division 4 (lowest), I race in Div2.
The race included Div 1/2/3 with Div 3 going off first, a minute later Div2 are set off and then another minute later Div 1 go. The race is usually pretty fast and furious as all groups try to stay away from each other, however Div2 usually catch Div3 within 3 laps, and Div 1 usually catch Div2 within 8 laps, the race was 18 laps long, last week I got dropped by the Div1’s 3 laps after they caught us which I was not happy about, but last night went a little better.
6.45pm the Div 3’s were set off and we were sent off a minute later, the pace was high from the start and I sat in about 4th wheel for most of the first 2 laps then the pace settled a little and I decided to go for it as we hit the start finish line and immediately got a big gap, I was joined by a rider from a rival club and off we went working together to try and stay away, however one of the bigger clubs got a little organised and started to chase, we stayed away for 4 laps before sitting up and allowing ourselves to be caught, it certainly warmed the legs up.
I sat in for a few more laps and just covered any breaks that tried to get away and then on lap 9 decided to have another pop and again hit the front hard and kept accelerating into the first corner past the start finish line, but this time I was not being allowed to go anywhere and was brought back, I stayed into the bunch until lap 11 when we were caught by the Div1 guys
I was positioned in the first 5 riders when we were caught so managed to jump in with the Div1s straight away, the pace went from 26-27mph that we were riding at up to 34mph very quickly, I felt myself going back down the line and thought that was that as I had done too much early on and had cooked my legs, however after about a lap I started to settle in to the pace and managed to move up again, I also worked out where the Div1s were accelerating hard so in order to counteract this I would move into the top 5 prior to this and let myself drop back a few places when the pace went up, ths stopped me going into the red too much.
I pretty much stayed in the bunch for most of the rest of the race, following wheels and keeping out of trouble, I was working hard but was fairly comfortable for most of it, on lap 15 a massive pile up nearly happened on the chicane coming onto the back straight, someone got to the front and immediately stopped pedalling, everyone was slamming on the brakes and switching lines to avoid coming down, one guy in front of me literally locked up both wheels, and his bike turned sideways and the back wheel came off the floor, I thought that was it and here we go, Im down, however his bike handling skills were immense and he stayed upright and didn’t even lose a place, disaster averted.
The pace went back up as everyone tried to get to the front to stay out of trouble.
On the approach to the final lap I moved up into 8th place, mainly to be out of trouble but also I thought that I have a decent sprint on me and if I can get to the finish straight with the front runners I can get a top ten (big ask but maybe). I lost around 10 places and was in around 20th as we came through the chicane to the back straight, in exactly the same place as before a heard an almighty bang behind me followed by screeching of brakes, metal and carbon on the floor and a lot of shouting, luckily it was behind me but unluckily someone was going to feeling sorry for themselves in the morning. Not much I could do about it so head down and kept going.
I moved up into 12th place on the final straight before the last corners to the finishing straight and we hit the last corner at around 30mph and then boom everyone went, I was a little boxed in nut managed to find a little space and stuck the hammer down, I made up 3 places to finish 9th and was finishing fast, however bad positioning had left me in a position where I had too much ground to make up and not enough track to do it in, still a top ten finish against the big boys was for me a good result especially as I had been dropped by them the week before.
After the race I found out that someone had switch lines mid corner which caused the crash, 2 rider were brought down, one was a club mate of mine who was ok with just cuts and bruises and a snapped spoke in his Fulcrum Racing Zero back wheel, the other fared worse, he was still prone when I rode round on my warm down lap but was ok apart from the usual cuts etc, his helmet was cracked (thank god we are made to wear them) but worse was his front ENVE wheel was kaput and both legs on the forks of his Canyon Aero Road bike had snapped in half, an expensive race!
Awaiting the full results but will be interesting to see how many Div2 guys finished in front of me, I don’t think many which means its looking more promising for the Summer Division Race series which starts in July 8)
I live in Jersey in the Channel Islands so we don’t have a Cat system like the UK, but do have a divisional system which goes from division 1 (highest) through to division 4 (lowest), I race in Div2.
The race included Div 1/2/3 with Div 3 going off first, a minute later Div2 are set off and then another minute later Div 1 go. The race is usually pretty fast and furious as all groups try to stay away from each other, however Div2 usually catch Div3 within 3 laps, and Div 1 usually catch Div2 within 8 laps, the race was 18 laps long, last week I got dropped by the Div1’s 3 laps after they caught us which I was not happy about, but last night went a little better.
6.45pm the Div 3’s were set off and we were sent off a minute later, the pace was high from the start and I sat in about 4th wheel for most of the first 2 laps then the pace settled a little and I decided to go for it as we hit the start finish line and immediately got a big gap, I was joined by a rider from a rival club and off we went working together to try and stay away, however one of the bigger clubs got a little organised and started to chase, we stayed away for 4 laps before sitting up and allowing ourselves to be caught, it certainly warmed the legs up.
I sat in for a few more laps and just covered any breaks that tried to get away and then on lap 9 decided to have another pop and again hit the front hard and kept accelerating into the first corner past the start finish line, but this time I was not being allowed to go anywhere and was brought back, I stayed into the bunch until lap 11 when we were caught by the Div1 guys
I was positioned in the first 5 riders when we were caught so managed to jump in with the Div1s straight away, the pace went from 26-27mph that we were riding at up to 34mph very quickly, I felt myself going back down the line and thought that was that as I had done too much early on and had cooked my legs, however after about a lap I started to settle in to the pace and managed to move up again, I also worked out where the Div1s were accelerating hard so in order to counteract this I would move into the top 5 prior to this and let myself drop back a few places when the pace went up, ths stopped me going into the red too much.
I pretty much stayed in the bunch for most of the rest of the race, following wheels and keeping out of trouble, I was working hard but was fairly comfortable for most of it, on lap 15 a massive pile up nearly happened on the chicane coming onto the back straight, someone got to the front and immediately stopped pedalling, everyone was slamming on the brakes and switching lines to avoid coming down, one guy in front of me literally locked up both wheels, and his bike turned sideways and the back wheel came off the floor, I thought that was it and here we go, Im down, however his bike handling skills were immense and he stayed upright and didn’t even lose a place, disaster averted.
The pace went back up as everyone tried to get to the front to stay out of trouble.
On the approach to the final lap I moved up into 8th place, mainly to be out of trouble but also I thought that I have a decent sprint on me and if I can get to the finish straight with the front runners I can get a top ten (big ask but maybe). I lost around 10 places and was in around 20th as we came through the chicane to the back straight, in exactly the same place as before a heard an almighty bang behind me followed by screeching of brakes, metal and carbon on the floor and a lot of shouting, luckily it was behind me but unluckily someone was going to feeling sorry for themselves in the morning. Not much I could do about it so head down and kept going.
I moved up into 12th place on the final straight before the last corners to the finishing straight and we hit the last corner at around 30mph and then boom everyone went, I was a little boxed in nut managed to find a little space and stuck the hammer down, I made up 3 places to finish 9th and was finishing fast, however bad positioning had left me in a position where I had too much ground to make up and not enough track to do it in, still a top ten finish against the big boys was for me a good result especially as I had been dropped by them the week before.
After the race I found out that someone had switch lines mid corner which caused the crash, 2 rider were brought down, one was a club mate of mine who was ok with just cuts and bruises and a snapped spoke in his Fulcrum Racing Zero back wheel, the other fared worse, he was still prone when I rode round on my warm down lap but was ok apart from the usual cuts etc, his helmet was cracked (thank god we are made to wear them) but worse was his front ENVE wheel was kaput and both legs on the forks of his Canyon Aero Road bike had snapped in half, an expensive race!
Awaiting the full results but will be interesting to see how many Div2 guys finished in front of me, I don’t think many which means its looking more promising for the Summer Division Race series which starts in July 8)
Obsessed is a word used by the lazy to describe the dedicated!
0
Comments
-
any news on those who crashed? who was it?JesseD wrote:Crit race last night which was handicapped, the course is a 1.5km cycle track around a big field at a sports centre, the course is ok, a little bit technical but generally quite fast, it does have a long start finish straight which is quite wide with lots of run off area all around the track apart from a section which is between some trees.
I live in Jersey in the Channel Islands so we don’t have a Cat system like the UK, but do have a divisional system which goes from division 1 (highest) through to division 4 (lowest), I race in Div2.
The race included Div 1/2/3 with Div 3 going off first, a minute later Div2 are set off and then another minute later Div 1 go. The race is usually pretty fast and furious as all groups try to stay away from each other, however Div2 usually catch Div3 within 3 laps, and Div 1 usually catch Div2 within 8 laps, the race was 18 laps long, last week I got dropped by the Div1’s 3 laps after they caught us which I was not happy about, but last night went a little better.
6.45pm the Div 3’s were set off and we were sent off a minute later, the pace was high from the start and I sat in about 4th wheel for most of the first 2 laps then the pace settled a little and I decided to go for it as we hit the start finish line and immediately got a big gap, I was joined by a rider from a rival club and off we went working together to try and stay away, however one of the bigger clubs got a little organised and started to chase, we stayed away for 4 laps before sitting up and allowing ourselves to be caught, it certainly warmed the legs up.
I sat in for a few more laps and just covered any breaks that tried to get away and then on lap 9 decided to have another pop and again hit the front hard and kept accelerating into the first corner past the start finish line, but this time I was not being allowed to go anywhere and was brought back, I stayed into the bunch until lap 11 when we were caught by the Div1 guys
I was positioned in the first 5 riders when we were caught so managed to jump in with the Div1s straight away, the pace went from 26-27mph that we were riding at up to 34mph very quickly, I felt myself going back down the line and thought that was that as I had done too much early on and had cooked my legs, however after about a lap I started to settle in to the pace and managed to move up again, I also worked out where the Div1s were accelerating hard so in order to counteract this I would move into the top 5 prior to this and let myself drop back a few places when the pace went up, ths stopped me going into the red too much.
I pretty much stayed in the bunch for most of the rest of the race, following wheels and keeping out of trouble, I was working hard but was fairly comfortable for most of it, on lap 15 a massive pile up nearly happened on the chicane coming onto the back straight, someone got to the front and immediately stopped pedalling, everyone was slamming on the brakes and switching lines to avoid coming down, one guy in front of me literally locked up both wheels, and his bike turned sideways and the back wheel came off the floor, I thought that was it and here we go, Im down, however his bike handling skills were immense and he stayed upright and didn’t even lose a place, disaster averted.
The pace went back up as everyone tried to get to the front to stay out of trouble.
On the approach to the final lap I moved up into 8th place, mainly to be out of trouble but also I thought that I have a decent sprint on me and if I can get to the finish straight with the front runners I can get a top ten (big ask but maybe). I lost around 10 places and was in around 20th as we came through the chicane to the back straight, in exactly the same place as before a heard an almighty bang behind me followed by screeching of brakes, metal and carbon on the floor and a lot of shouting, luckily it was behind me but unluckily someone was going to feeling sorry for themselves in the morning. Not much I could do about it so head down and kept going.
I moved up into 12th place on the final straight before the last corners to the finishing straight and we hit the last corner at around 30mph and then boom everyone went, I was a little boxed in nut managed to find a little space and stuck the hammer down, I made up 3 places to finish 9th and was finishing fast, however bad positioning had left me in a position where I had too much ground to make up and not enough track to do it in, still a top ten finish against the big boys was for me a good result especially as I had been dropped by them the week before.
After the race I found out that someone had switch lines mid corner which caused the crash, 2 rider were brought down, one was a club mate of mine who was ok with just cuts and bruises and a snapped spoke in his Fulcrum Racing Zero back wheel, the other fared worse, he was still prone when I rode round on my warm down lap but was ok apart from the usual cuts etc, his helmet was cracked (thank god we are made to wear them) but worse was his front ENVE wheel was kaput and both legs on the forks of his Canyon Aero Road bike had snapped in half, an expensive race!
Awaiting the full results but will be interesting to see how many Div2 guys finished in front of me, I don’t think many which means its looking more promising for the Summer Division Race series which starts in July 8)0 -
Iain, one of the guys from my club, he has some scrapes and bruises but is ok, bit sore but is fine, I don't know the name of the other bloke, but after the race he was up and walking about, again with cuts and bruises, but his bike definitely came off worse, snapped forks and a smashed front wheel, not a cheap fix!
Luckily both seemed OK after the race.
From what I gather someone switched lines mid corner, and they had no chance, the one who switched stayed up. This is all hearsay though as it happened a couple of bike lengths behind me so I didn't see it.
You from Jersey too Ozzy?Obsessed is a word used by the lazy to describe the dedicated!0 -
JesseD wrote:Iain, one of the guys from my club, he has some scrapes and bruises but is ok, bit sore but is fine, I don't know the name of the other bloke, but after the race he was up and walking about, again with cuts and bruises, but his bike definitely came off worse, snapped forks and a smashed front wheel, not a cheap fix!
Luckily both seemed OK after the race.
From what I gather someone switched lines mid corner, and they had no chance, the one who switched stayed up. This is all hearsay though as it happened a couple of bike lengths behind me so I didn't see it.
You from Jersey too Ozzy?
no luckily not........from Guernsey!0 -
Ah I see, you were just scoping out to see if one of our top riders would be too injured to compete in next years Inter Insular then
Obsessed is a word used by the lazy to describe the dedicated!0 -
Haha more concerned with the island games than inter insular0
-
Its on a Island just off Sweden next year isn't it?
You in contention to be selected?
The closest I will get is seeing the updates in the Jersey Evening Post
Obsessed is a word used by the lazy to describe the dedicated!0 -
Yeah, Gotland, hopefully yeah, have been to last three games so fingers crossed can make it four0
-
Aren't Jersey and Guernsey those tax avoidance places?Postby team47b » Sun Jun 28, 2015 11:53 am
De Sisti wrote:
This is one of the silliest threads I've come across.
Recognition at last Matthew, well done!, a justified honoursmithy21 wrote:
He's right you know.0 -
Ozzy - Good effort, I will keep a look out for your results next year, hopefully you will get 2nd
Matthewfalle - I moved here thinking that, I pay slightly more tax here than I did in the UK! I think it only applies to the the uber rich, which I most definately am not! Obsessed is a word used by the lazy to describe the dedicated!0
