The usual early season warm-up at Aintree, organised once again by the very able Carl Lawrenson. The Eddie Soens race remembers one of the best coaches and motivators the country has had, and now also commemorates another Merseyside official, Ken Matthews who organised this event for very many years. It is usually cold and windy at the exposed horse racing circuit, but surprisingly this year the weather was very mild. Positively balmy! The race usually ends in a massive bunch sprint and this time there was no exception, however the finalé was a bit hairy. Big bunch of 100+ riders you can guess what was about to happen. The sequence of pics below from British Cycling photographer Larry Hickmott show the inevitable crash with a few metres to go. A touch of wheels and a rider goes down just before the barriers start, so someone takes avoiding action by running on the grass. 
Here go another two riders (below). 
Now all these riders were sprinting through on the grass behind the barriers and aiming for me and my van. It was hard to concentrate on the road while looking at them out of the corner of my eye, but the three of them just about squeezed between the van and camera. I was asked after the finish if I had got the numbers, but although the camera is good it's not magic. It can only pick up what is going on in front of the lens and not behind it! I asked Larry afterwards if I could use his images and he agreed, so thanks for that Larry. The cheque is in the post!! 
Just to prove it really was me, here's another of Larry's pictures (left). I'm hiding in the van and calling out the finishers to Chief Judge Tom Greep. At the Eddie Soens we only do the first few finishers on the line. The judges take my laptop to their room afterwards and go through the entire film. The new video camera certainly helps, but I have to say that the Aintree finish is probably the hardest we do in the entire season. The width of the road coupled with the massive field make it very hard to identify everyone. We are not helped by the fact that it's early season and many riders have the usual jackets on. Possibly one solution for the future would be to run an extra camera on the other side of the road. Comments would be very welcome. |