Round 3 - Cadwell Park 2nd April

My god its a long way from Tynemouth. Luckily we'd stopped over in Sheffield and continued on from there on Saturday afternoon. We set up and settled down for the night.

The next day the weather was looking threatening but mainly managed to stay dry.

Simon Raynor, John Lydamore and Rob Hoyles were there as well as the Handley brothers. This was going to be tough.

Again, practice and qualifying went well enough but it quickly became apparent that I didn't have the pace to run with the frontrunners (Jon/Rob/Si).



The last qualyfying race was a wet one and my first time on wets. I did okay but some of the other riders managed to find parts of the track that are best left undiscovered.

Onto the points race and I was hanging with the front guys, at least for the first lap! Then after another lap of holding station I decided to push a little bit harder. Unfortunately this coincided with a slight drizzle coming down.

The gap was definitely closing and this added extra incentive to keep pushing. Unfortunately I should have settled for my 3rd spot as I managed to highside out of mansfields. And it was a biggy. Big enough for the race to be red-flagged.

I told the medics that I remained concious throughout, and I believe I did, but it was a bit fragmented. I remember the back tyre loosing grip and me shutting off, then I dont really remember the next bit until I hit the ground and then I just remember being on the floor and trying to crawl to safety and not being able to. I guess its something my brain doesn't want to remember.

Anyway, off in the ambulance to the medical centre and a nice lie down to answer lots of stupid questions. Meanwhile Nic was having kittens as she hadn't seen the crash and couldnt get any information about what had happened. Finally I got a message to her and she made her way to the medical centre. That was my time to relax and go very pale and faint. My vision then when very wierd and I thought I was going to pass out. However I managed to pull myself together and 30 minutes later I was on my was with suspected bruising and potential ligament damage.

The pain meant that I couldn't drive and the painkillers meant I couldnt stay awake.

Nic drove the white beast all the way back to Tynemouth (stopping at the Wetherby Whaler of course)... bless her

The next day the X-ray showed that I had cracked my shoulder blade in a "very rare and impressive way"... oh good!

So that was me out for at least 2 months, longer if Dad gets his way

Arse! The only compensation was being awarded 3rd place with the bizarre count back rule.