Crystal Palace 22 April

[Hal]

No official results yet, but a great turnout last night of both racers and supporters.


Started mid pack in the 3/4 race with Keiran, Toks, Matt, and ..(Mark/Alex sorry I forget your name) riding for the first time a Palace.

Things were quite intense but managable and spent the first half of the race in contact with the front of the group. Some confusion when the 1/2's came past with a couple of the lead 3/4's tagging on the back. This started to cause some pain.

At about 6 laps to go in our race, I was flagging a bit on the climb and then, like a hand from the heavens Toks gave me a gentle shove . Very gratefully recieved and it kept me in contact with the front group.

About 3 laps to go I some how lost contact with the front after some confusion with the melee of riders on the course ( and feeling the pain ) and proceeded to TT the last 3 laps solo on the outside chance there may have been less than 10 in the front group, there wasn't.

I really good start to the Palace season, very happy with my performance and that of all the ACC's out today.

[Ivor]

Well that was good fun if a little chilly standing around towards the end! Excellent rides by everyone there. Does George ever stop smiling?

Superb showing Mark on your first go, sorry we got lost on the way over! We both assumed the other knew the way. Oops, with hindsight we should have followed the rider we saw all kitted going "the wrong way".... ahem.
If it's any consolation I got lost on the way home too!!

Total confusion standing at the side trying to work out who was where... where were the hi-tech plasma screens and timing boards.

Surpassed myself by taking the piss out of a rider signing on... then looked down after he left to see it had been Matt Seaton.

[Marky Mark]

VERY WELL DONE to you all.

We have left a message for her so when Carol Vordamen does come back to us to decode the technical clip boards with the 'results' we'll let you know ASAP .

I was good to meet you all and I'm so glad I came to the race, I will not be putting a list of names up here just in case I miss 1 or 2 and I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. So I would like to say hello to you you you you you you you Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grubb.

I would also like to nominate the highlight of the race to the one who done the impression of Douglas Barder and his bouncing bomb (wrong film but bear with me). The deployment of you MARK'S Garmin to try to disable the opposition was a good first effort BUT. I'm sure between us we can develop a trigger mechanism for Mark which would greatly increase the chances of maximum collateral damage, maybe on a bend when the riders are closer together?

I done 1 lap of the race circuit before the race started, so I did technically finish first . Big effort from all the riders in that race, you really did give it some, hats off to all and well done again.

HAPPY St GEORGES DAY........................ was he racing last night?

[kieran]

Well, the first night of Palace, Stu and George in the E12 and myself, Toks, Hal, Mark, & Matt in the 34 race and some welcome supporters. There was a very big field for the 34s (whilst warming up some one said 76 had entered – and they were still signing on!).

After the warm up me, Matt and Toks lined up at the front of the 34 group (Hal and Mark a bit further back I think). After Paul Ts speech and the E12 departure we moved to the start line. PT repeated his speech at some one’s request (it was that good) and then off we went. I moved to second in the front and remained up near the front for the whole race. The pace was high for the whole race and I really did enjoy it, sadly due to the size of the field the track was a bit crowded and we got mixed up with the E12 bunch a number of times.

It was good to be up near the front with a few other ACC jerseys showing (Toks and Hal). Near the end we stayed with the main E12 group so the finish was very confusing. I sprinted for the finish as I was sure I was somewhere near the top 10 as there hadn’t been many in front but it was impossible to tell, and after the finish line when I stopped, just before the curve and the E12s continued on, there was less than 10 34 riders stopped. So I went back to the judges to see if they got my number but not sure now if I made it. My sprint was on the far right-hand side of the track shielded by a bunch of E12s from the majority of the judges who were on the left hand side, so I might have been missed?

Anyway I’m not too concerned as I was very happy with my race, and as Toks says if I don’t get 3rd cat this year I’ll hang up my racing wheels in shame and go back to sportives. Had time to watch the end of the E12 race and watch George try his usual on the 2nd last lap but he was swallowed up by the others on the final lap, still good try, maybe it’ll pay off one day. I think we were lapped once or twice by them (at one stage I looked up to see who’s wheel I was following and it was George’s, who quickly powered out of sight and I hopped behind a more suitable rider) so they were going quite fast!

[kieran]

Results out:

E/1/2
Three riders went clear and from it Jody Crawforth won from Warrick Spence.

1 20 Jody Crawforth Arctic RT 2
2 27 Warwick Spence Cyclesport Serrotta E
3 24 Tom Hemnant London Dynamo 1 @ 8 secs
4 19 Matt Holmes Arctic RT 1 @ 26 secs
5 28 Guy Powdrill London Dynamo 2
6 6 Philip Glowinski VCL 3
7 22 Kevin knox Dulwich Paragon 2
8 12 Toby Meadows Corridori 2J
9 34 Matt Seaton Rapha 1V

3/4s
A big bunch gallop to the line won by Jos vaan Veld Hoven

1 67 Jos vaan Veld Hoven Rollapluza 3
2 48 Stuart Spies London Dynamo 3
3 65 Richard Hoult London Dynamo 3
4 18 Nigel Ling Citihub 3
5 40 Anne Boorsma Dulwich Paragon 3
6 34 David Rees Dulwich Paragon 3
7 11 Ben Atkinson VCL 3J
8 45 Guy Phillips Dulwich Paragon 3V
9 21 David Arthur Roadcycling.com 3
10 13 Jamie Walker Woolwich 4

Must admit I am very surprised by the results, not the only one either, check out:

[url]http://dulwichparagon.proboards26.com/index.cgi?board=racing&action=display&thread=1215&page=4[/url]

I think some riders (not specifically DP either) need to come forward and tell their story?

[Ivor]

Found it all very confusing and couldn't work out who was where at all.

I thought the idea was the 1/2 and 3/4 races were separated on the track and when people were dropped they were pulled out? How does last night compare to usual? was it normal?

[kieran]

Orv, lapped riders are only pulled out near the end to hopefully make the scoring easier but from experience not all lapped riders pull out, maybe some don't hear the call to pull out?

[Andrew G]

Normally dropped riders are only pulled out at the end, with about 2 laps to go so they don't get in the way in the sprint finish. Having been one of those riders Kieran they make it very clear to pull out next lap, it's more those that don't pretend they can't hear. Or see as the organisers wave arms at you as well just to make sure, some people just like to keep going so they can charge for the line and try and nab 54th place .

Ivor - E/1/2 and 3/4 splits in the races are normally handled very well with very little overlapping, probably just a combo of big fields and the organisers having to get themselves back up to speed as well as the riders, expect it'll all be back to normal slick handling after a couple of races.

It can be confusing to work out who's where when watching as you don't see what goes on on other bits of the circuit, also once riders are dropped you can't always tell if that rider, or small group, is in the E/1/2s or the 3/4s until they've gone by and you see the colour of their number. If you watch then it's well worth walking round the circuit in the opposite direction to see the race from everywhere, and get away from all the bloody midges that swarm about by the S/F area biting lumps out of you.

[quote]There was a very big field for the 34s (whilst warming up some one said 76 had entered – and they were still signing on!).

[Ivor]

[quote]:roll: for Ivor for both embarrasing yourself and getting lost. From the Walworth road you go straight on up towards Herne Hill, then left after the Fox on the Hill pub (Sunray Ave), then just keep going straight on and you end up at Crystal Palace.

[mlocke]

I was really looking forward to my first race and I really didn’t know what to expect.

I agreed during the day to meet up with Ivor at Elephant & Castle – he thinking I knew the way, me thinking that he knew the way. Little did either of us know that neither knew the way. Anyway, off we went in roughly the direction we thought was the way and we only got lost once.

At one point I did get a little anxious as someone who gave us directions said that we were a way off and the clock was ticking quite close to kick off,

Finally made I t to the track and thankfully Ivor lent me some cash to sign on which saved me nipping out to the cash machine (damn, there goes one excuse to miss the start).

I have to say that the track is a little strange. It’s a lot shorter in length than I though and not as wide as I would have expected. Like Andrew said it is quite technical in places as I soon found out. Rolling around on the warmup with Hal was fine but when theres a hoard of you wanting the same line and going twice as fast things can get a little twitchy.

I soon remedied this situation by getting dropped which meant I had the whole track to myself.

My first lap was quite an experience, the pace was fast from the off and I found it very difficult coming out of the left hander at the bottom of the hill to maintain my speed as well as others and hoards of people came past me.

This meant a big dig on the climb to get back some ground which had been lost.

I managed to keep this up for about three laps until I could do no more. I saw the rest of the bunch slide ahead and I continued alone. After a couple of laps of this I was thinking of packing it in but then I started to feel a bit stronger and managed to pick the pace up a bit.

I was still being lapped by all and sundry but I viewed it all as good practice for next time.

I lost my computer down the straight (thanks for retrieving it for me Marky Mark) so disappointingly I don’t know what my avg speed or HR info was for the race.

Near the end I thought the race had finished and was ready to pull off but when I enquired I still had some laps to go. I did think ‘if I let the fast guys lap me three times on this lap then I wont have to do anymore’.

Anyway a few laps later I was pulled out as one of the lapped riders and got down to the straight to watch both finishes which were fast.

Overall a good experience and I hope in a few weeks to be able to stay in the bunch for longer.

Thanks for the support from the side and from the other ACC’ers in the race who gave shouts each time I got lapped.

For anyone thinking of giving this I go I would recommend it. You can’t do any worse than I did

Observations for next time:
Try harder – I don’t think I pushed myself hard enough to get on the wheel of people in front
Be more aggressive – Try to hold my line more and don’t just move out the way of people I am racing against (but still keep out the way of E,1,2 and those lapping me)
Get there early - because we got a bit lost it took a while to get there which meant I didn’t have a massiv amount of time to relax before hand
Take water – I had a waterbottle but took it off my bike before the start. I was gagging for a drink half way
Try ti understand whats happening – I had no clue how many laps, where I was or anything in the race

See you all on Saturday

Mark

[kieran]

[quote]Try ti understand whats happening – I had no clue how many laps, where I was or anything in the race

[adrian]

Great stuff, Mark. I thought you hung in there brilliantly.

Last night was my first experience of CP. I found the whole thing totally incomprehensible but quite inspiring. It was quite clear that the only thing for it is to get stuck in - and that's what I plan on doing in a couple of weeks' time. I expect to suffer horribly, but saw everyone do that last night, only to come away smiling

Well done to everyone that competed last night - see you on Saturday

PS

[quote]all the bloody midges that swarm about by the S/F area biting lumps out of you.

[-Adam-]

Any news of the E12 boys?

Well done Mark and any others that dipped their toes for the first time last night. Your right about having to try... as funny as it seems, it took me maybe 10 races to get the hang of actually having to make the effort in a race. Now it just comes naturally . Keep going back for more and when, in particular, you get the hang of the circuit, you'll do well. You were riding fairly strong on Saturday from what I saw. So remember to hold the wheel in front (at all costs!) and concentrate...

[Marky Mark]

You're welcome Mark, good comments from all involved. I even enjoyed the ride home in the dark. I thought I rode home really fast but my garmin said I was slow. Great night had by all by the sounds of things.

[Michelle]

Well done everyone, I may be there next week, but definitely gonna do some Palace races.

Sounds like horrendous fun - just the sort I like!