Why Not Take the Race to the People!
The Scottish road race; a nice day, a good course - past the village green at Denholm is cool - well marshalled, a full field.
Paul rode a great race, but what does it say about the Scottish youngsters?
But why start 30 minutes late; why is it so difficult to get a start sheet and why not take it into Hawick, each lap - past the pubs ?
We managed to coax Viktor down with us; for Vik, his remarks were restrained - and common sense.
His main point was that whilst it was a great ride by Paul Coats - who incidentally works full time and has a young family - it's not good news for Scottish cycling that a 41 year old is right there at the death, with only three 'full timers' in front of him.
Anyway, a good race; we all enjoyed it.
But please Ross, don't waste your talent here; get off to Belgium, France or Italy next season - start making the connections, today!
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Ed
I doubt the race would have gained much by going through Hawick each lap.
I know of few of the Hawick Public who would have either waited all that time or come back to spectate each lap.
Anyway, more to the point, the Crit was supposed to "Take the race to the people" but the riders failed to turn up in any sort of numbers to make it the spectacle it should be (especially given the amount of work required to put it on). It is sad to me, that despite the efforts of Tosh & HCC plus the support of the Local Politicians, Police, and Local People, that it just falls short of what it deserves to be.
I think the answer is what you are alluding to when you urge Ross to venture further afield to develop his career - that there are not sufficient riders of a sufficiently high standard in Scotland. I do not mean this as a critiscism in any way, just a statement of the facts.
We see the same in Hawick with the decline in Rugby and, frankly, just about everything else. I am not either an active Rider or HCC member nowadays, but a bigger fan of cycling than ever.
It has been an amazing few years for British Cycling at the very top level but I'm sure you are even more aware than me that, at the grass roots, the talent pool is very small.
Well done to Endura but their efforts only serve to magnify the gap between them and everyone else. Although I was not involved in this promotion, I have been in many others over the past 30 years or so and know how much this stretches the Hawick Club so it is good to see some recognition of the RR Champs which, as you say, was a good race.
I do agree with the sentiment though that unless a rider can get onto the BC programme they are probably best venturing further afield.