Eelmore 3/4, 13th April

The first race at Eelmore, under grey skies with rainclouds scudding across the horizon. Fairly strong headwind down the home staight, chilly and inhospitable weather. The evening didn’t start well with the organisers realising that they had been locked out of the circuit (well, for car access at least) so we all had to park in the car park and trudge all the way down the gravel path to the sign-on point.

The 3/4 race saw a large turnout (the biggest I’ve seen at Eelmore) of around 55 riders. It made for a nervous opening, with many seemingly inexperienced racers vying for position on the first few laps. I made sure to stay at or near the front for the first part of the race and stay out of trouble. It also meant that I could take the corners at speed and not have to sprint out of every corner, as is required if you ride near the back of the bunch.

Halfway through I made my main mistake – taking a breather near the back of the bunch. With the number of riders in the bunch , the speed on the back straight and the bunching on the headwind straight I found it really difficult to move up again. The bunch was not depleted at all (Eelmore is rather like Hillingdon in that with a big bunch it is almost impossible to get dropped) and some riders were showing signs of erratic riding. I get more and more pissed off when I see riders in the bunch, out of the saddle, looking behind them and swerving all over the place. You are not pros!

Just as I was starting to move up with about 5 laps to go I got caught behind a crash on the top hairpin – one rider had wobbled and taken down another VC Meudon rider. I just managed to avoid his bike as we all sprinted to get back onto the back of the bunch. At 2 laps to go there was another more serious crash on the home straight with about 4 riders coming down. Again this seemed like a totally avoidable crash that was probably down to inexperience, probably from just one rider who took out three other unfortunate riders. It’s fair to say that at this point I gave up, sat up and coasted the final two laps – no way was I going to get up the front from mid-bunch in a group of about 50 without exposing myself to far too much personal risk.

I think over the last few years I’ve seen one crash at Eelmore on the hairpin. In one race this year I’ve seen two crashes. I feel that standards in races generally are really slipping and I have to say that I put the blame squarely on riders who seem to have little experience of group riding. Riders who want to race should have plenty of chaingang miles under their belt before they even contemplate turning up on the start line. It’s an important fact to remember for existing club riders too – we all benefit from making the group rides as inclusive and welcoming as we can.