5/7 Omega Thruxton Circuits

A large field lined up at Thruxton today of approx 80 riders, saw plenty of now familiar faces in the bunch. Decided to sit in for the first few laps then get up to the front if I was feeling ok.

First lap was comfortable with a few short lived attacks being made. With strong winds the bunch was stringing out considerably making it hard to react to any dangerous moves up front. 3 laps in I worked up to the front 10 and sat in where I could be closer to the action. A couple more attacks were made by riders in 2's and 3's but nothing stuck in the wind. I could see a move about to made by a group of strong riders as they worked their way to the front, waiting for the optimum time to launch off the front.

As expected the decisive move was made coming into the chicane before the finish, where the bunch slows down as people get closed out in tight corners. 2 guys launched out of the chicane closely followed by a rider that was in the break with me at Dunsfold and the week before at Goodwood. I jumped on his wheel and with the help of a tailwind we'd opened up a nice gap and started working together in smooth through-and-off.

After 2 laps of work in our quartet, one rider started to miss turns and soon after was followed by another. We continued to work in 2-up fashion into the wind and I was beginning to tire just as we were joined by a sizable group of 10 riders who'd bridged across. Our smooth breakaway was now chaotic, with riders sitting in, others opening gaps, others coming through too fast and dangling off the front. This larger group was now yo-yoing round the circuit and collectively we were losing our lead.

A few attempts were made to reintroduce some order but without any luck. I'd worked too hard once we'd been joined and should have recovered from the previous lap or so of hard work. With the yo-yoing and gap closing I was soon at the back and starting to suffer with another of the my original break companions. With 4 laps to go we were eventually dropped and I sat up and waited for the bunch. Having recovered whilst pootling on my own I sped up and dropped into the front 10 as the bunch steamed past. Necked a gel and a good mouthful of drink and waited for a move to hopefully take me back across to the break.

This was short lived as coming into the chicane a guy next to me in the bunch lost control, looked like someone had touched his wheel or bars, and he slewed into my front wheel. Hitting me seemed to keep him upright, but unfortunately in the process it caused me to slam into the track hard on my left hand side. I slid briefly and rolled hoping to avoid anyone behind riding into me. I managed to, but my bike spiralling didn't, bringing down an i-Team CC rider who landed hard and broke his collar bone.

For a minute or so I sat on the track watching the bunch disappear round chicane and my bike twisted up in front of me. Left leg, shoulder, hip and arm were all grazed and cut but nothing serious. My right knee had been hit by the chap behinds bike and was starting to swell nicely, along with a golf ball size purple bump to the left of my abodomen. Viv stopped and helped me up. The support car was soon to the scene as attended to the guy with worse injuries before cleaning up my cuts. The crash had split the bunch apart, creating 3 groups by the end scattered by the wind. For a first crash it wasn't too bad, no major damage and the bike was ok. Just need to replace the brake hoods, get some new bar tape and get the front wheel trued up.

This week I'd planned on Dunsfold, Portsmouth and the SL handicap on Thursday but I think I'll do better by taking it easy and having a recovery week. Its the Devil Ride next Sunday and I'm hoping my aches and pains will have worn off by then. Might do the handicap on Thursday to see how I'm going.