Junior Heffernan

I thought I dedicate this post to the late Junior Heffernan who needlessly died yesterday during the Severn Bridge Road Race, Tim Butt knew Junior better than me, but having raced in triathlon and then cycling against him for the past 10 years it's strange to know that that boy who I said 'Hi' to at races and raced as recently as September against him is gone forever. Condolences obviously go to all his family and friends and from I've heard about him, everyone said he was a funny and quite lovely young man, here's the brief statement from British Cycling about the incident:
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/about/article/bc20130303-Statement--Rider-dies-at-Severn-Bridge-Road-Race-0

This incident just highlights the appaling state road racing in Britian is in and I for one well be very interested to read the report into the accident because you have so many athletes fighting over just the lefthand-side of the road, invariably on country roads where the race is away from traffic and therefore the peloton rarely gets three people wide and to overtake you are forced to go on the otherside of the road anyway, usually. What makes me laugh is that it would be easier to just do a rolling road closure of the whole road and anyway you have to close half the road regardless for the race, all you are doing is merely extending the current system to make it even safer. It's hardly like the peloton hangs around and it is amazing to see on the international cycling websites and forums the reaction from across the globe about this tragic incident. We are the only country, to my knowledge, which does not have a rolling road closure for any road cycling events other than for the proper professional races, we are laughed at and considered backward for not, as it is proven, again though; through what I have been told, that closing the roads produce less incidents than if they are left open to traffic.

Fortunately I now race in a country that is far safer, admittedly there have been two crashes, in the same race, but in Britain there will be a couple of crashes every road race, I have never been in a road race where there has not been at least two crashes. This is because closed roads allow for the riders to take great angles through the corners, carry speed through, but greatly reducing the risks. This results in the corners just been taking normally with great consideration to your fellow riders as the corners are not risky and nor does cornering really help in splitting the bunch. However, in Britain, the peloton, though half or the third of the size of peloton's in other countries, is already quite strung out, but no-one can go through to keep the pace high or attack really because there are people blocking in front and traffic on the otherside of the road. One of the only places to make up positions, get away etc.. is through the corners. This does encourage better handling skills, but puts unnecessary stress and risk on the competitors as well as some competitors will try and actually make others crash through the corners to whittle down the field, though this is obviously very rare and hard to prove.

Hopefully the report finds this and out of Junior's death this (un)health-and-(not)safety law can change for the better for the simple matter of it is, if there was a rolling road closure, he wouldn't of died, if he was racing anywhere else in the world in the same race he wouldn't of died, but because he raced in Britain, he did. R.I.P. Junior.

To clear up the racing situation over here in France, I am a French 2nd cat. rider meaning I'm eleigible to compete in any races that allow cat.2's in them, last weekend, Le Melrandaisse was a 1/2/3 and Le Route Bretonne was an E/1/2. This weekend was the Queen of the Breton Classsics, La Manche-Atlantique, an E/1/2. As the name implies we had to cycle from the North of Brittany, on the Channel (La Manche actually means 'the sleeve' in French and not 'the channel', pretty weird) to the south on Brittany to near the Atlantic. This promised to be a hard race with 190 competitors a North to South route with a strong Easterly wind, the horrendousness of Le Route Bretonne was bound to be repeated with 6 laps of Plumelec to be completed at the end giving us riders a grand total of 156km. The finishing circuits were centered on Plumelec Hill, where Valverde won the first stage of Le Tour de France 2008.

It was a battle from the word go, as some of you may know I have been under the weather a bit this week as well as the fact that in races this time of year you don't know what to wear, unfortunately I wore too much and was drenched in sweat by the end. Having felt sluggish from the start I started to hit my stride a bit more after an hour. Not too long after this Hamish was shown the back-door by the peloton as no one would let a break go due to the importance of this race. Shortly afterwards George was shown the back-door too, what makes racing so hard here is the fact you have these 2/3km long climbs that average about 4 or 5% and then when you reach the top, they are completely exposed as the farmers round here do not readily employ big fences or bushes. This has to do with, I believe, with the fact that you can come within 30metres of any property in France and not be trespassing, I also think the farmers do this on purpose to make the races harder, the vindictive swine.

Here you are then battered by crosswinds and having already been on the rivet it's torture, all form goes out the window and you start what I like to call 'crabbing', where you basically end up looking like a crab trying to ride a bike, not pretty. Anyway, after 1hr20mins when George got dropped roughly, the peloton split, fortunately after a furious 10min chase we got back on, but this group and me included was just yo-yo-ing back and forth off the main bunch with people getting shot out the back all the time. Unfortunately I lasted until the last big hill before the finishing circuit in Plumelec, approximately 8kms away and after 2hrs 15mins fo racing. This hill had a prime and when some attacked for it and dragged the peloton with them I shouted 'Gruppetto!', only two blokes listened and so I bade the peloton 'Au revoir' and told the peloton that I would see them at the circuit shortly. We then did through and off the three of us, till we dropped one guy, leaving just me and another rider, where we soon caught another guy up who had a blown then I proceeded to drop these two as we got to the finishing circuit. I managed to do 1 lap before I got lapped and then had to climb off my bike after 2hrs 40mins of cycling.

Savage day and the average speed of the winner was, well you can see here the results, time etc...: http://www.directvelo.com/actualite/24657-manche-atlantique-classement.html

As I managed only 1 lap I was not included on the results however I reckon I can safely assume that I probably got, if you're knit-picking, 99th, or I like to think so anyway. The peloton just split completely on the cirsuit into very small bunches of no more than 10-15 riders, a great experience to ride on such a famous hill, on such famous roads and the finishing hill must of had about 1,000 people on it. Amazing atmosphere.

Congratulations must also go to Doug Dewey who rides for Hennebont Cyclisme and who won on Saturday, an 1/2/3. Great win and one for the Brits on tour, here's the link to the results:
http://www.directvelo.com/actualite/24623-etoile-de-tressignaux-classement.html

A very melancholy day, hopefully justice is served for Junior and his family, until next time, stay safe.