A strange week.....

  Oh dear.  The ECCA 10 on the A11 near Newmarket turned out to be a horrendous experience. 

  About 2 ½ miles in, I noticed a bit of a kerfuffle on the opposite carriageway about 300 yards ahead.  I missed the impact but I just saw the rider and bike tumble to a halt by the central crash barrier, with cars braking frantically behind.  The guy had started about 10 mins before me and was on the way home when a car ploughed straight into him as he crossed a sliproad.  As I arrived at the scene, he was crumpled up in the middle of the fast lane, clearly badly injured and bike smashed to pieces.

  I had one of those “what the hell should I do?” moments.  Several motorists were already in attendance and on the phone summoning help.  Should I park the bike up and try and skate across the busy dual carriageway on my cleats, dodging traffic?  But what good could I possibly do?  All I’d probably end up doing is having a second accident!

  I sat up and cruised down to the turn, watching the traffic on the opposite carriageway slowly back up.  Then came a fleet of emergency vehicles – a reassuring sight.

  I stopped at the turn to tell the marshals what had happened and then made my way back up the other side of the dual carriageway towards the crash site.  I don’t mind telling you I was shitting myself, expecting to be clipped by a car or truck any second.  The police had the road blocked off in preparation for the Air Ambulance landing.  The injured rider (Doug Yareham) was still lying motionless on the road and I feared the worst.  Once the air ambulance crew were in attendance, the road was reopened and me and several other riders continued very gingerly up the hard shoulder back to the finish.

  Horrible.  I was convinced that the guy had been killed and was a bit upset but one of my mates had heard that he had regained conscious briefly but there was all a bit of ‘chinese whispers’ going on.

  I was quite shaken up and had to stop for a couple of pints on the way home in the car.  Quite sobering that a bloke dressed in a highly fluorescent skinsuit had been hit in good visibility in a well signposted event on a dead straight bit of road.  It could have been anyone to be honest, just a lottery.  I’m not being melodramatic but I do count myself as being very fortunate to still be alive after a couple of quite horrible accidents – being taken out like that just seems so unfair.  I’ve lost mates in plane crashes, motorbike accidents and all sorts of stupid things, but not quite as stupid as being killed by a motorist too busy texting / rolling a fag etc or too stoned to spot me on my bike.  Bought a few bad memories back.

  In the end, the rider had survived with multiple fractures, including a horribly broken leg that required major surgery.  Lucky, lucky bloke.

  Still feeling a bit wobbly, even a week later.  Dented my confidence – seriously considering avoiding dual carriageway events in future but I know I’ll get sucked back into chasing fast times again eventually.

  I DNS’d the EDCA 10 on the A11 at Wymondham the next morning, although it was eventually abandoned anyway due to rain / spray affecting visibility.

  Was looking forward to riding the EDCA 25m circuit champs on weds but I felt very strange warming up.  Really, really tired and my legs felt heavy and had that dead ‘stingy’ feeling.  Then it started pissing it down and I just packed up and went home.  This event too was cancelled soon after because of the weather.

  The next day was the Iceni 100km audax which I’d been looking forward to for weeks but I felt too ill to ride it.  Still feeling a bit ropey today.

  I’ve already pulled out of the VTTA 25 champs on Saturday because I really didn’t fancy riding on that same bit of A11 near Newmarket again – I think I’d be too jumpy to give it full concentration.  Plus I’ve come down with the lurgy anyway, AND the weather looks crap again.  So not too bothered!

  I seem to have lost my motivation to race to be honest, don’t know if that’s down to the weather, being a bit poorly / tired or just being a bit bored with it at the minute.  Still, it’s only June – another 3 -4 months of racing ahead yet.