Junior

British Cycling as a whole has taken a massive hit over the weekend. Personally I didn't know Junior Heffernan but a few of my friends who knew him say he was a talented young man with great potential and an all round nice guy. I'd like to echo those sentiments and say that my thoughts go out to his close friends and family.

The general tone in the aftermath of this devastating event involved lots of people saying that "Racing in Britain should be on closed roads like the rest of Europe" and to the more aggressive "Do BC spend our membership money on carting the Brailsford bandwagon all over the world with their selected cycling darlings?" Neither are statements I feel are inappropriate given the circumstances.

Although there is another dimension to the argument that not many people seem to be shouting about. It came to me after a disappointing Saturday at the Eddie Soens Memorial. A large group of riders hit the floor pretty hard with about 70% of the race remaining. A team car and paramedic van were used to cordon off a section of the race track (roughly 2/3 of the tracks width) to allow the medics to attend to the injured riders. A fitting precaution for a few minutes of checking riders over. This continued for over half an hour. Every lap the peloton being squeezed through a dangerously small gap on a high speed corner. During this time a second crash happened on the other side of the track and a second paramedics van set to work.

At what point does the commissarie neutralise the race? In this case he/she didn't. The situation was made worse by a race official stating clearly at the start of the race "No laps out will be given to any riders under any circumstances" At this point I'm thinking this race is becoming a How-to guide on creating a frenzied, nervous and dangerous bunch.

During Juniors race, according to reports, it was the riders and not the commissaries that neutralised and, eventually, cancelled the race. If our race officials are constantly seen to have this disregard for our safety then of course riders are going to take risks. If getting caught behind a crash means your £20 entry fee goes up in smoke within the first 10km what are riders, especially young hopeful riders, going to do? Take risks! Use both sides of the road to make progress to the safer front end of the peloton! Make sure your position is maintained by holding more speed in corners!

I don't solely blame race officials for problems in road racing in the UK. Before I moved to Manchester my season used to involve several handicap races near Abergavveny. Liz Slater was the commissar at these events. During one race she saw fit to stop the bunch, call a halt to the race, step out of the lead car and basically tell us to behave. The rules were laid down at the start; No rider is to use the right hand side of the road at any point. It made moving up through the bunch more difficult once the various groups had come back together but that's racing. There need to be more commissaries like Liz as far as I'm concerned.

I think we all wish for fewer weekends like this. Every time a tragic event like this happens I can feel the collective cycling community hope for change, a renewed investment in bringing the UK more inline with European racing in terms of safety. It’s not going to happen. We need to be outspoken about it. I'll be writing to British Cycling over the next week I implore you to do the same. We do need closed road racing. The UK is ridiculed in Europe for being so behind the times. After all what's the cost of a rolling road closure compared to the added safety it will provide. We already pay among the highest race entries and membership fees in Europe why isn't our money working for us?