Red Hook Crit London No.2 - Saturday 9th July

[Hannah]

Many of you have no doubt heard me blathering on about Red Hook Crit, a fixed wheel no brakes crit race that happens in various locations throughout the world - one of those locations being our capital city.

This fast paced event attracts riders from across the globe. Owen and I went to London this time last year to watch riders that we have followed with interest battle it out in a technical course. We watched local riders, such as fixed time trial specialist Xavier Disley compete with riders from America, Europe and beyond.

Now, you know how my fixed and I can't be separated - and while watching the event I vowed to enter the crit in 2016.

Well, I've entered, and today I found my name on the same start sheet with incredible riders like Ainara Elbusto, Kelli Samuelson, Juliet Elliot and British champ/European champ/World champ and Olympic gold medallist Dani King - so, er, no pressure (or, as Mick H put it, 'a bloody good wheel to follow'!!!)

Dani's involvement was announced last minute, but it shows both the calibre of the field and the rise in both this type of cycling and racing.

You can find the start sheet here and you can also use this website to keep track of my progress throughout the day.

The prelim itinerary goes as follows:

QUALIFYING 13:00 – 16:00 (women's 15:30 - 16:00)

LAST CHANCE RACE 17:00 – 17:45 (men only)

WOMEN’S CRITERIUM 19:00 – 20:00

MEN’S CRITERIUM 20:30 – 21:15

PODIUM CEREMONY 21:30

 

I will be riding 26 laps of a 950m long course, total distance will be 24km. Lapped riders are removed from the course, and many first time riders get lapped and taken off. My aim is to finish all 24 laps, even if I come last!!!

Owen and I will travel to London Friday and be back home on Sunday. 

I don't know how much I will be online on the day as I'll want to keep my mind clear and focused on the task at hand, but I'll be sure to post up news on Sunday. :-)

[Moira]

Well  come on then Hannah how did you get on ?

[Hannah]

Red Hook Crit London No.2 Race Report

Arrived in London Friday afternoon. Took a somewhat stressful ride into Greenwich from Euston with our kit. Arrived at the hotel, rekkied the course and ate noodles. Had one of the most restless night's sleep of my life. Short naps filled with vivid dreams of racing, cornering, crashing. 

Saturday morning and I'm a bag of nerves. I get to the course early, and participate in the open session to ride the course. This 45 minute session boosts my confidence immensely. Five large groups of guys qualify ahead of me, each qualifying session suffers crashes - mainly on turn 3.

Nerves rising, I head out to the start/finish line to start my qualifying session. 25 minutes - but only the last 10/15 mins count as qualifying lap times. First 15 mins I roll around, warming up, getting quicker, picking lines, revving up for the effort, feeling good, feeling quick. Green flag, qualifying starts proper. First lap time ok, start to ride second lap, rider falls on turn 3. Qualifying stops. Green flag once medics have cleared the course, start to wind it up, I'm holding a good quick wheel, start another hot lap, same again, rider falls, qualifying gets red flag, any lap time I was setting is no longer valid. Feeling frustrated now, no good lap times, 5 mins of qualifying left, feeling tired.

I know I'm going to make the final irrespective of my qualifying time, and decide not to risk losing energy on another potentially wasted effort.

Qualified 47th out of 50. Not happy, but not a lot I can do with the crashes.

Our final was at 7pm, and by this point the crowds had gathered and the nerves were rising again. I was so frightened of taking out another rider. 

The noise when people bang boards either side of you is phenomenal. It both spurred me on and made me feel sick!

First lap I quickly drop the three girls behind me and a rider in front of me. But I also quickly end up in no man's land. I struggle alone for the next two laps alone, trying desperately hard to catch a wheel from the girl so closely in front and yet so frustratingly far. 

Dani King is winding up the pace to a whole new level, and by the end of lap 3 I knew I was going to be caught by lap 4/5. So did the marshals, and given that lapped riders are removed from the course for safety reasons they gave me the blue flag and off I came.

What Dani King did next is unprecedented within Red Hook. Within 15 of the 26 laps Dani had lapped 98% of field. Within 18 or so laps she had lapped the entire field. 

ALL of the riders were taken off the course except for Dani and the two girls fighting it out for second and third.

This has caused shockwaves throughout Red Hook. While I only spent a couple of hundred quid in accommodation, entry and travel, some of the women's teams had invested thousands of pounds to get the girls at the race - only to be taken off halfway through. 

Red Hook London No.2 was a truly exceptional race in so much as they have never had an Olympic athlete ride the event before, and so had no idea what changes (if any) they needed to make to the race to accommodate this change of play. With hindsight it's very clear that more needs to be done if Red Hook is going to field both elite and amateur riders in the same field. There's no doubt in my mind that had Dani not have participated the pace of the pack would have been slower, making it more likely that I would have lasted more laps. That coupled with my poor qualifying time due to crashes meant that on paper this wasn't the most successful Saracen outing.

But, for me, Red Hook was always a 'dip of the toe' experience. I was not, by any means, expecting to win, and the fact that I didn't crash (especially when more experienced racers did) is a win for me. I gained tons from the event and I have come away from it wanting to do it again and knowing what areas I need to work on. As a result of Red Hook I am now more enthused to ride track and to race geared crits - but fixed wheel no brakes racing is definitely where my heart lies and in the season next year I'll be looking to do more of this style of racing.