Clifton CC

Not good.

When Toby feels up to it could someone post where I can go see him?

There were a few nervous moments last night on what is a safe course so it's down to the riders unfortunately. As Reuben says its the wrong place at the wrong time.

Best wishes to Toby and all the others injured in the crash, not a great deal I could do to help by the time I trundled into the aftermath.

mattmarsden78 wrote:Just heard from Toby. Any other day I'd be a bit miffed at being woken by a 5am text but I was just glad to hear from him. He seems in fairly good spirits. He assures me that his nurses are "hot" which is easing the pain!!

That's a good sign! ...Take care Toby...Hope the op goes well. I understand that your exams are over at least, and you have the perfect excuse to put your feet up and watch Le Tour on the telly

All the best mate

Cam

Reuben

Hope that arm of yours is ok this morning? Sounds like really bad luck and not your fault. You could race for next 5 years and not be involved in another crash.

take care

Cam

Incredibly bad luck for both Reuben and Toby - as Damian said, crashes (even in 3rds/4ths races) are pretty rare, even if it gets a bit jumpy sometimes. Two comments from the commissaire's report after the event were (i) that the standard of riding was generally good - plenty of signalling of hazards, safe behaviour at junctions, and even the inevitable horse & rider shown courtesy - and (ii) the event was really well run by Cam and crew - full marks for both the Clifton events in this series - you can get out there and ride the remainder now.

As per last time on this circuit it was fast - bang on 26mph average - and especially on the downwind leg (where the crash happened, unfortunately). A break of six got away on the second lap and did really well to stay clear - just. Both Toby and Reuben looked strong and spent time at the front of the race.

Fingers crossed that all goes well with Toby's op today, and also that Reuben's shoulder feels better today than yesterday.

Hope all goes well today Toby, and also hope your shoulder is ok Reuben. Bad luck and best wishes to the other guys involved.

Thanks everyone for messages. I have just come back from A&E, have fractured top of arm close to shoulder - about 6 weeks in a sling probably. Very, very annoying but not too bad in the grand scheme of things.

I'm really sorry to hear that Toby was so badly injured but sounds like in good spirits so I hope surgery and recovery goes well.

Yesterday has put me off racing which is a shame as I love it but I'm too old to be coming home with broken bones. And there was nothing I could do about rider falling in front of me last night, so it could happen again - it just seems like pot luck to me unless you get to a Darren level of experience where you can sense danger before it happens but I'm not likely to do that without a lot more racing.

Best wishes to Reuben and Toby.

Just downloaded my GPS - 29.5mph pre-crash, looks like I braked for about 2 seconds which got my speed down to about 20mph then the speed graph takes a nove-dive to 8.8mph 2 seconds later so I guess that must have been my speed as my face and arm scraped along the road! Nice.

Sorry to hear about the crash. Best wishes to Toby and Reuben.

When it comes to the competition aspect, ours is a tough sport....

Anyone can get caught in a crash Reuben, it doesn't matter how experienced you are. Having said that when you've been racing a bit you get to know the riders you don't want to be near in a race.

Until this year I'd never ridden with 3/4 cats. For the most part I've really enjoyed it. The racing is hard enough for me to not want to get too fat and most guys know what they're doing, but....Ive also seen some shocking riding. I've said it before, some want to run before they can walk. Guys are racing who haven't mastered a chaingang line-out yet. I don't include any Clifton riders in this because I think thanks to a few years of Phil's training rides everyone knows what they are doing now.

If you give an Elite rider a nudge on the backside he stays solid, if you do it to a 4th cat novice he looks round wobbles and brings half the bunch down. An experienced rider doesn't sit up and stop pedalling when he takes his bottle out of the cage. It's all the little things you need to learn before you pin on a number.

A bad crash can obviously unnerve you Reuben, but as Phil says crashes as bad as that one last night are very rare.

Toby is out of surgery finally. He's woken up to find himself in a cast. It will be on for about 8 weeks.

He has ripped a tendon I believe but I will find out more later.

He is on Ward 28 (Again!!) but not sure how long he will be in for. I am sure Toby will be on to update everyone when he's up to it later.

Thank for everyones well wishes on behalf of Toby.

So sorry to hear of the injuries to Reuben and Toby last night, hope you both make a good recovery.

Ian H

I wish you both a rapid recovery.

Reuben, if you do fancy racing again, the LVRC usually has slightly smaller fields and perhaps as importantly several races with hills, which thins out the field a bit.

Hey guys,

Thankyou for all the great messages, in hospital with some nasty damage to my knee, something involving my tendon. Looks like I'm in a full cast for 8 weeks which is a bummer. As you can imagine, I'm not to happ right now.

Sorry to hear about you Reuben, we just can't get away from it.

As for the race itself, it was pretty poor, not my idea of fun, and when I was towards the front with Damien at the end I didn't feel safe and dropped back.

Sorry for the briefness

Cheers

Toby