Scottish Road Champs 2011: Wrap-up

Oliphant (RCD Photographic)

 A week later & everything is returning back to normal (until the next event). We're all beginning to sleep properly again after what seems like a rollercoaster ride up to the event, hopefully it all pieced together on the day. From an organisers point of view, we tend to spend the day answering questions, directing people & generally sorting things to make sure everything runs smoothly, a task which if it's done correctly, nobody knows it's being done, hopefully we were successful. So we tend to lose the overview of the event that you get by being a spectator, but judging by the feedback, everybody had a good time, the riders got some support & the good number of non cycling spectators got to see racing close up, the way it should be.

Barr leads (RCD Photographic)

The people of Balfron & the surrounding area have been hugely supportive in our efforts to pull this together, we've met Daryn Piper from the community council on a number of occasions and with his help we've included the community in the event, without this enthusiasm we'd have been unable to make a route passing through a village safe for the riders, as you could see with coned off areas & volunteer marshals from the community. In return the riders put on a great show for the spectators and some local businesses benefitted from the event, there were a lot of people on that finishing straight, a great noisy crowd, exactly what we were looking for.

Womens podium (RCD Photographic)

We've got a lot of people to thank, loads of 'Friends of Vortex' came forward on the day to help out, it was really appreciated. For those non cyclists reading this, Vortex Race Team is one of many cycling clubs, we don't run events for a profit, everybody working on the event does so for a bit of grub & some petrol money, as with all but 3 or 4 majorly sponsored sports I expect this is the case with Scottish championships in most other sports, run by small teams of people, these are the people that help sport run in Scotland and everybody who helped made the event what it was. The organising team from Vortex RT were Colin Bark, Jeremy Greengrass & Tom Worthington, all contributed hugely for the last 6 months to create what we hope has been a memorable championships, we're even considering going through it all again next year and placing a bid with Scottish Cycling. We're going to get out on our bikes now!!

Where do we start, in no particular order... 

All photos courtesy of Robin Dick, RCD Photographic (see link below for more)

......the race convoy....
In the lead cars we had Robert Kennedy from Milersport Architecture (Vortex RT too) & Graeme Steen (City of Edinburgh RT), both drove all day long across the two races, a tough job and requires complete concentration ahead & in rear view mirrors.
Our commissaires control the event and direct everybody through CB's, a rolling manager & referee all rolled into one, tough jobs & as I said, everybody's a volunteer. In the womens champs we had John Davies (VC Glasgow South) & Tom Forbes (VC Astar & Ivy CC), they were driven by Martin Harris (Discovery Junior CC) & Guto Williams (East Kilbride Road Club). The mens event commissaires were Al Sutton & Kevan Sturgeon (both Elgin Cycling Club), they were driven by Stevie Hazlett (Ivy Cycling Club) & Neil McLeod (Glasgow Wheelers).
We have 2 first aid cars in each event, in each car a St Andrews Ambulance first aider is covering the race, the first aiders in the womens event were driven by Bobby Gilmour & Bobby Brown (both Glasgow Nightingale CC). In the mens we David Leese (Vortex RT) and Bobby Brown again. Not too many problems in the womens event, but a high speed puncture and crash resulted in a number of riders needing attention in the mens, one rider was airlifted to hospital as a precaution, but he's ok and is racing again this weekend in Barcelona, tough guy Stuart MacGregor.
The race service was covered in both events by the team from Solid Rock Cycles of Balmore, the shop mechanics were providing fast wheel changes and vehicles to the event, a very important job. Without this service a riders race could be over very quickly if they punctured and failed to get back into the bunch quickly.
Thanks very much to all the race convoy, you did an excellent job and we'd love you all to come back for more next year.

 Mens break (RCD Photographic)

.....marshalls......
The unsung heroes of every race, these guys stand on the corners in the howling wind & rain, to keep the riders safe, any race you're at please go and thank these people, true heroes and all of ours did a fantastic job. We had several clubs helping out on this, plus a good number of locals who did a great job, some on their first marshalling duties, we're all impressed!
We had representatives from loads of other clubs, the Ivy CC, Glasgow United CC, Glasgow Nightingale CC (big Al from Wheelcraft was photo's a lot in his own 'special' fashion), thankyou everybody for that and we hope the goody food bag helped a bit, tomoto ketchup will be in there for you next time Al, duly noted request.

......Janette Hazlett & helpers....
Yes Janette, you get your own category! The Ivy Cycling Club volunteer extraordinaire (she'll be cringing at this, but it's all true) took full control of the lap control, time gaps and keeping everybody informed about what was going on at the corner in Balfron. Essentially a judge, timekeeper and coordinator, an asset to any event, thanks Janette. Also thanks for flags, signs etc, loads of help pre-event too. Thanks also to Leigh Marshall from the Braveheart Fund who was helping Janette out at that corner. The local marshall who provided bacon rolls and tea was especially helpful, saved us a job, much appreciated.

......photo finish, NEG & Scottish Cycling .......
Bill & Sandy operate the photo finish kit all year round for Scottish Cycling, it's now become a 'must have' at any race, as before these guys are tireless volunteers who help make events run smoothly all over Scotland and sometimes down south. Hopefully putting the guys next to Doyles cafe this time made things a bit more comfortable, quite often they're stuck in the middle of nowhere, with a couple of sheep and a cow for company, hopefully we didn't scare them off.
The NEG (National Escort Group) were fantastic as usual, these guys are police trained volunteer motorcycle outriders and help keep the race safe, if you were there you wouldn't have been able to avoid their presence, we had 6 in total, they did a great job as usual. 
Scottish Cycling provided the photo finish, the NEG riders & the medals, plus the SC van with all the kit we needed and we were helped set up the finish area, thanks Mark & son. They made a wise & welcome decision (in our opinion) of awarding Vortex RT the road championships in 2011, we hope we gave it the respect it deserves.

Doyles Cafe (RCD Photographic)

......the people of Balfron & surrounding area......
We owe a huge gratitude to the following individuals & organisations for their help, every one has helped to make the events what they were.
Fundamental to it all were the people of Balfron & their community council, we couldn't have hoped to have a more supportive community to help us run the Scottish Championships.
Colin Bark visited the farms on the course before the event and we owe a huge thanks to all the farmers, they ensured that there were no livestock movements across the road on the day and offered to limit use of tractors too. Everything ran smoothly on the day and hopefully we didn't cause them too much disruption. Thanks also to Malcolm Paterson (Nightingale CC) for his help on this.
Stirling Council also helped hugely, providing banners, cones & poncho's on the day. The resurfacing work carried out by them on the course before the event allowed us to use this circuit, previously we wouldn't have run a race on it, all really appreciated.
We also really appreciate having the Provost of Stirling Fergus Wood & BBC Sport's Rhona McLeod available for the prizegivings, this really helped to make the podium presentations very special, huge thanks to both.
The people of Balfron came out in impressive numbers to cheer on the race, loads of riders have said that this is what made the day for them, so get cheered round the circuit and over the line, thanks and we hope you enjoyed yourselves.

Mens Podium (RCD Photographic)

........event partners & sponsors......
There's a long list here, everybody did a splendid job and shared our vision of what we were trying to do.
Ridley Bikes of Belgium, who provide some of the worlds top quality racing bikes also provided first prize of a carbon fibre race frame to mens race winner Evan Oliphant (Endura Racing). The full range is available at Solid Rock Cycles in Balmore.
Optical Express & Adidas Eyewear, providing sports glasses & prescription sports glasses were there all day offering assistance & provided Scottish womens champion Jane Barr (Velocity44Stirling) with some Adidas eyewear.If you require prescription cycling glasses or advice, give them a call or visit the shop at 28-36 Renfield Street, Glasgow.
Keytime Blackberry Centre on Great Western Road, Glasgow, are an indpendent mobile retailer who provide a huge range of mobile phones (not just Blackberry) & contracts to businesses & the public, worth a look. They provided a Blackberry to mens silver medal winner Gary Hand (Endura/Pedalpower).
Not only providing race service, but also helping with our finish line area, Solid Rock Cycles provided a giant 'tent', unfortunately it had to be taken down in the afternoon's high winds, but provided a rain free area for the ladies podium presentation. They had some new products on show, carbon wheels from Cruise Racing Products, have a look. Solid Rock also brought out friends and family in force to support the events.
Doyles cafe on the finish line was a great & welcome addition the to day's events. We'd like to thank Jack & his team for opening on a Sunday. We noticed the athletes from the ladies race were giving special attention to the home made cakes as part of their post race recovery. Jack normally rides his bike on Sundays, but if you're on a Saturday ride, I'm sure you'd be more than welcome to use Doyles as your coffee shop.

Womens lead group (RCD Photographic)

........the riders........
All the riders gave a fantastic show of strength, power, skill & fitness to the spectators. With the circuit based format everybody got to see the riders a number of times & everybody appreciated their ability to be courteous (& smiling) immediately after crossing the finishing line in the gruelling races. Really was great to see and shows our sport in a very positive manner, a great introduction for some new cycling fans.

.........the photographers........
We've seen some stunning shots from loads of photographers, who all captured the event, we've compiled a list below, this can be added to if we've missed any. Get in touch if you want yours listed here, email here.

Robin Dick was in the action on a motorbike, driven by Scottish Cycling's Graeme Herd for some laps, see his photos of both event in the following link. Particularly interesting is the capture of Oliphants winning attack in a sequence of shots, the spectators didn't get to see this, here's your chance. RCD Photographic (all photos in this article are property of RCD Photographic)
Graeme Brown took some excellent shots, all on this link. GeeBee Images
Stuart Hall from Our Day Photos was on the road all day taking some superb action shots. All Day Photos flickr
Ian Henderson was back out taking great shots, see them here LeesLang flickr
Vortex RT flickr site has a good number of shots from various contributors. Vortex flickr

Oliphant (RCD Photographic)

Results, links & reports.
Womens Championship results by Vortex RT.
Mens Championships results by Vortex RT.
Veloresults report.
VeloUK mens report.
VeloUK womens report.
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