MSG Central Rd2: The highs & lows of Milton Keynes Bowl...
Aug 6, 2018 11:54:59 GMT
Steve Sorba, Joe R Booth, and 5 more like this
Post by davidr on Aug 6, 2018 11:54:59 GMT
Saturday 4 August; glorious sunshine, the return of the summer heatwave and the prospect of a great (if a little hot) day MTB racing at Milton Keynes Bowl. This was the second round of the Mud Sweat & Gears Central series. New for 2018, a three round foot-in-the-door foray into a new region for MSG and hopefully the start of bigger and better things in years to come. MSG organise some of the best MTB races accessible to us in the Southeast - a region pretty bereft of any XC racing. They've pretty much been exclusively in the eastern region so the addition of a new series in another region is always welcome and something both Charlie Cod and I have been keen to support.
Having made the trek up to the Time Trialist's paradise that is Milton Keynes - not only is every road punctuated by a roundabout, they're also all named in code too! Saturday's race was being held at the Milton Keynes Bowl, usually the scene of numerous concerts, festivals and probably the only reason the majority of people have journeyed to Milton Keynes at all!
The man-made, semi-circular amphitheatre of grass banking, encircled by a small wood around it's top and steeper outward facing slopes actually lends itself quite well to hosting cyclo-cross and XC races. Saturday's course packed in everything you'd expect from a typical XC layout with a couple of zigzag climbs up to the top of the bowl, some jumps, logs and lots of tricky, dusty, off-camber sections through the wooded back slopes. There was also a small loop around one of the gravel carparks before a fast run back to the centre of the bowl and the finish area with a couple of fast turns before you climbed back up to the top again.
Our races both set off at 2pm, albeit a minute or so apart for the different categories - Charlie in the Grand Vets, me in Sport. 9 laps in total, each lap estimated to be around 9 minutes (quite short for an MTB race!). They'd turnout to be very contrasting races indeed.
I got an average start but made up a few places on the first climb before getting stuck behind a couple of people who were struggling through the technical sections. About a minute later, the Vets, Grand Vets and Super Vets were unleashed from the start. Charlie had a good start and was up to third in the Grand Vets as they settled into the first laps of the race. Once clear of the slower riders, I worked my way through to the head the race. Faster up the climbs, I managed to drop the chasers and set about trying to maintain a decent pace. Conscious that the heat could make this a race of attrition I tried to pace my efforts and limit mistakes as best as possible. This allowed the others to stay in touch.
Charlie'd dropped back a position to fourth after the second lap but was still well placed and ahead of some decent names. He was enjoying the course and still in touch with the leaders ahead as both our races passed the half distance mark.
Into the last four laps, I was closing in on the elite riders ahead and got them with a lap to go. Both were pretty much cooked so weren't able to respond when I'd caught them. However, Charlie's race was about to come to a rather premature conclusion. Coming through the last off-camber section of the lap - a couple of slightly uphill left-hand bends that swooped between the occasional tree before a sharp right that dropped down over two logs - he'd come off and ended up lying off to the right of the course, beyond the tape, on his back. Almost immediately he'd realised something wasn't quite right with his ankle and he decided it wasn't a good idea to try jumping up and try to ride it off this time! As the last couple of laps passed, one marshal became two, then a St John's ambulance medic joined in. As we were on our last lap the ambulance was on the scene and he was in the hands of the paramedics. Once I'd finished I headed back round to see what had happened – it had been clear that Charlie was generally ok and at first I'd wondered if it was simply heat exhaustion. The marshals hadn't re-routed the course and they didn't cut the race short – both being indications that it could be more serious. And I'd also figured Charlie would be pretty annoyed if I'd stopped whilst leading just because he'd been 'a silly fool and run out of talent!'
The paramedics were all doing a great job in making him comfortable and plying Charlie with strong painkillers. They were obviously working as beyond the frustration of busting his ankle, he was a bit miffed that they'd had to cut his fluro pink rapha sock off although they'd managed to remove his Sidi mtb shoe without resorting to snipping at it! He'd also been using that horrid sleeveless DP jersey of his although sadly they didn't cut that off – mores the pity, it lives! A suspected a dislocated or maybe fractured ankle was the initial diagnosis so it was definitely off to A&E in an ambulance for him whilst I was left to collect up his stuff, pack the car and do the podium stuff before heading round to A&E.
In A&E the x-ray revealed it was Spiral fracture of the lower left leg. Basically he'd broken both lower leg bones, one just below the knee and the other just above the ankle which meant his foot was pointing at a rather acute angle compared to his kneecap - try turning your foot 90° and keep your knee pointing straight*, you shouldn't be able to do that! Surprisingly they'd not seen too many of these sorts of break so he was a bit of star in A&E with numerous nurses coming round to have a gawp. All the marshals, first aid and paramedics did a great job and as you'd expect the NHS staff were great too. I think we get a bit blasé about volunteers at races but they all responded brilliantly throughout.
(*. please don't try, we don't need anymore injuries!!)
So it was nice to get the win and especially satisfying to have dropped the others but by contrast Charlie crashed and obviously it was quite a serious break so it certainly puts things into perspective. Whilst in someways, on the face of it, there's more chance of crashing off-road with; numerous obstacles, different surfaces and those trees which can on occasion jump out at you! Generally it's no more sketchy than racing on the road or a crit and in many ways the landing is softer off-road so you tend not to get more than the odd scratch or thorn stuck in you. It's pretty rare for someone to break their leg in that way (they'd probably thought he was racing on the track rather than a mtb when they saw his injury!) and on that part of the course. Normally you'd just get a scuffed elbow or knee as a souvenir for falling off there and the few trees in that bit weren't near the course or where he'd fallen so it wasn't as if he'd tried to hug one on the way!
Understandably with a serious break such as this it's going to require an operation and bits of metal bolted or welded in place to help it all heal – Charlie's checked and no, they don't offer a carbon or titanium option! – and then quite some time to recover thereafter. To compound things, he's stranded up in Milton Keynes until after they operate – the hospital won't transfer him as there's no need and although he's free to discharge himself at any point, as the surgeon pointed out, he'd have to make his own way to London and as he can't move how would he get back in any case! He's in good spirits though, well, as best as you'd expect for someone stranded in Milton Keynes that is… Hopefully he'll be back soon and whilst not bothering the front of the vets races for a while yet, I've no doubt he's eagerly masterminding session plans and dreaming up new ways to terrorise those doing the Wednesday winter track sessions!
Having made the trek up to the Time Trialist's paradise that is Milton Keynes - not only is every road punctuated by a roundabout, they're also all named in code too! Saturday's race was being held at the Milton Keynes Bowl, usually the scene of numerous concerts, festivals and probably the only reason the majority of people have journeyed to Milton Keynes at all!
The man-made, semi-circular amphitheatre of grass banking, encircled by a small wood around it's top and steeper outward facing slopes actually lends itself quite well to hosting cyclo-cross and XC races. Saturday's course packed in everything you'd expect from a typical XC layout with a couple of zigzag climbs up to the top of the bowl, some jumps, logs and lots of tricky, dusty, off-camber sections through the wooded back slopes. There was also a small loop around one of the gravel carparks before a fast run back to the centre of the bowl and the finish area with a couple of fast turns before you climbed back up to the top again.
Our races both set off at 2pm, albeit a minute or so apart for the different categories - Charlie in the Grand Vets, me in Sport. 9 laps in total, each lap estimated to be around 9 minutes (quite short for an MTB race!). They'd turnout to be very contrasting races indeed.
I got an average start but made up a few places on the first climb before getting stuck behind a couple of people who were struggling through the technical sections. About a minute later, the Vets, Grand Vets and Super Vets were unleashed from the start. Charlie had a good start and was up to third in the Grand Vets as they settled into the first laps of the race. Once clear of the slower riders, I worked my way through to the head the race. Faster up the climbs, I managed to drop the chasers and set about trying to maintain a decent pace. Conscious that the heat could make this a race of attrition I tried to pace my efforts and limit mistakes as best as possible. This allowed the others to stay in touch.
Charlie'd dropped back a position to fourth after the second lap but was still well placed and ahead of some decent names. He was enjoying the course and still in touch with the leaders ahead as both our races passed the half distance mark.
Into the last four laps, I was closing in on the elite riders ahead and got them with a lap to go. Both were pretty much cooked so weren't able to respond when I'd caught them. However, Charlie's race was about to come to a rather premature conclusion. Coming through the last off-camber section of the lap - a couple of slightly uphill left-hand bends that swooped between the occasional tree before a sharp right that dropped down over two logs - he'd come off and ended up lying off to the right of the course, beyond the tape, on his back. Almost immediately he'd realised something wasn't quite right with his ankle and he decided it wasn't a good idea to try jumping up and try to ride it off this time! As the last couple of laps passed, one marshal became two, then a St John's ambulance medic joined in. As we were on our last lap the ambulance was on the scene and he was in the hands of the paramedics. Once I'd finished I headed back round to see what had happened – it had been clear that Charlie was generally ok and at first I'd wondered if it was simply heat exhaustion. The marshals hadn't re-routed the course and they didn't cut the race short – both being indications that it could be more serious. And I'd also figured Charlie would be pretty annoyed if I'd stopped whilst leading just because he'd been 'a silly fool and run out of talent!'
The paramedics were all doing a great job in making him comfortable and plying Charlie with strong painkillers. They were obviously working as beyond the frustration of busting his ankle, he was a bit miffed that they'd had to cut his fluro pink rapha sock off although they'd managed to remove his Sidi mtb shoe without resorting to snipping at it! He'd also been using that horrid sleeveless DP jersey of his although sadly they didn't cut that off – mores the pity, it lives! A suspected a dislocated or maybe fractured ankle was the initial diagnosis so it was definitely off to A&E in an ambulance for him whilst I was left to collect up his stuff, pack the car and do the podium stuff before heading round to A&E.
In A&E the x-ray revealed it was Spiral fracture of the lower left leg. Basically he'd broken both lower leg bones, one just below the knee and the other just above the ankle which meant his foot was pointing at a rather acute angle compared to his kneecap - try turning your foot 90° and keep your knee pointing straight*, you shouldn't be able to do that! Surprisingly they'd not seen too many of these sorts of break so he was a bit of star in A&E with numerous nurses coming round to have a gawp. All the marshals, first aid and paramedics did a great job and as you'd expect the NHS staff were great too. I think we get a bit blasé about volunteers at races but they all responded brilliantly throughout.
(*. please don't try, we don't need anymore injuries!!)
So it was nice to get the win and especially satisfying to have dropped the others but by contrast Charlie crashed and obviously it was quite a serious break so it certainly puts things into perspective. Whilst in someways, on the face of it, there's more chance of crashing off-road with; numerous obstacles, different surfaces and those trees which can on occasion jump out at you! Generally it's no more sketchy than racing on the road or a crit and in many ways the landing is softer off-road so you tend not to get more than the odd scratch or thorn stuck in you. It's pretty rare for someone to break their leg in that way (they'd probably thought he was racing on the track rather than a mtb when they saw his injury!) and on that part of the course. Normally you'd just get a scuffed elbow or knee as a souvenir for falling off there and the few trees in that bit weren't near the course or where he'd fallen so it wasn't as if he'd tried to hug one on the way!
Understandably with a serious break such as this it's going to require an operation and bits of metal bolted or welded in place to help it all heal – Charlie's checked and no, they don't offer a carbon or titanium option! – and then quite some time to recover thereafter. To compound things, he's stranded up in Milton Keynes until after they operate – the hospital won't transfer him as there's no need and although he's free to discharge himself at any point, as the surgeon pointed out, he'd have to make his own way to London and as he can't move how would he get back in any case! He's in good spirits though, well, as best as you'd expect for someone stranded in Milton Keynes that is… Hopefully he'll be back soon and whilst not bothering the front of the vets races for a while yet, I've no doubt he's eagerly masterminding session plans and dreaming up new ways to terrorise those doing the Wednesday winter track sessions!
