Gerry Hughes Road Race - WMRRL rd 6

West Midlands Road Race League Round 6

Welland, Malvern, Worcester.

65 mile

Flat Course

Very, Very Hot.

Somehow I woke up this morning feeling half descent which came as a bit of a surprise given what I put my body through on that awful night at Cheltenham but i wasn’t complaining.  I was looking forward to today for 2 reasons: The hot weather and getting to take mike to another race, I’m trying to take him under my wing a bit and give him some guidance to exposure to racing. The guy has real potential so just needs the experience to allow him to develop in to a race winning machine!

We set of nice and early in order to get there with plenty of time to spare, when we pulled up we ended up parking behind another club rider and friend, Tony Kiss, who was also racing today and eager to make some crazy moves in today’s race. We set off from the HQ following the lead car through the neutralized zone whilst we trundled up the common. As the flag dropped, Tony kept his word and attacked straight away just as he said he would, as I suspected it didn’t come too much and was soon dragged back.

The course isn’t the most exciting as its generally flat and not very technical, this is a shame given the location in the Malvern Hills and what terrain could be used for road racing around these parts. During the first hour not much happened but it was pretty fun watching Tony’s incessant attacking, that was until he punctured and got left to fend for himself after he was given a spare wheel and never managed to get back with the group. As expected given the course, the day consisted mainly of attacks that didn’t stick and got dragged back, but by the half-way point I was getting annoyed at the lack of co-operation from others riders as I tried and tried to initiate a break and get this race going. I found that I was a pretty marked man during today race as I am fairly well known in these races, especially for being a breakaway specialist. Every time I attacked I was followed by the entire peloton yet when I was caught nobody could be bothered to counter and make the race interesting, instead they waited for me to attack again and in the end I was just attacking over and over trying to get one over on the bunch. Once or twice I did get a gap and took some riders with me but then they didn’t want to work so as soon as we hit a head wind we got dragged back. Typically, after I made a series of about 5 attacks and self-counter attacks I sat up and tried to have a tactical think, as this happened 2 riders attacked and were let go, I couldn’t believe it. After all the times I tried, they ride round me on the off chance and are away and once again it’s down to me and some of the other contenders to take the initiative.



My nice shiny new shoes, all yellow in there glory


The last lap comes around and the 2 are up ahead and out of sight, a few more go off the front but get dragged back. I resign myself to not getting away and instead decided to sit in till the finish and see how my sprint holds up. Whilst sitting about 15 riders back and preparing my sprint legs, shouts come travelling down the bunch warning us of an ambulance at the side of the road, as we pass my worst nightmare is realised. Mike, who I hadn’t seen for a while was lying at the side of the road been attended to the medics, I could not believe it was him but had no idea what had happened. As it turns out there was a crash only a few riders back from me on the previous lap where 5 riders went down with mike being one of them. At first they were concerned that he had broken his collar bone and damaged his kidneys so the carted him of the Gloucester Royal Hospital.

In the last 5 km coming in to the finish with the 2break still clear, I was trying to get my mind focused on what is a notoriously dodgy sprint but all I could think about was how mike was doing.  Still, I was holding my place at the front of the bunch well and feeling pretty good, as we came in to the long finishing straight, a few riders took some do or die moves off the front, I stayed where I was and went with the main sprint as it opened up. I managed to power past a fair few and managed a respectable 12^th over which gave me 4 more points towards the overall. I crossed the line, caught my breath and then sprinted back to the HQ in desperate need of finding out what had happened to mike.

The officials were great and told me exactly what had happened and where he was, but I was unsure whether I should go to the hospital of head home. On the advice of the officials I headed home with his bike and smashed helmet and tried getting in contact with his family. After no luck, I contacted the hospital who were very helpful in telling me how he was and was also informed that he would be good to go home soon. Poor guy was in hospital for a good number of hours with no food and no proper clothes; he also had no way of getting home so I went down with my close friend and emotional coach, Tom Heenan to pick him up. It was not a pretty sight but other than severe road rash he had no long term damage which is very lucky, oh and his bike was fine.

It just reminds you what a dangerous sport we compete in and just how much concentration and safety precautions we should maintain whenever we ride. Oh, and whatever you do, never ride without a helmet, mike would have been a lot worse of was he not wearing his as its now in about 4 pieces.

Ride Safe

Dan