Arbis Colbert Roadrace, Toddington/Berkshire, Regional A , 2/3/4, 65mi, 6th Place (12 BCF points)

6 and a half laps on a rolling (coaster) 10mi circuit with a short ramp and following drag on the final 400m. Dream racing weather, except some wet patches following the rain of the night before. After neutralized lead out to the course the first lap was a bit of a recce ride of whats to come. A very steep long decent in dense (pitch black) forest tunnel with pottholes and very narrow road, basically to be taken single file. 3 guys nailing it down there on the second lap me in full on pursuit but unable to close the 30m gap on the decent. Only got them on the following short climb and we were away, far enough to not see anyone behind us anymore, but not far enough to give us a restart with time bonus when the lead car gets stopped by traffic and us caught back by the peloton. Apparently we had 20seconds, not enough to account for. Then a crash behind a corner, carnage piling up right ahead of me with probably 5 riders down and 3 needed to be treated by paramedics, again riders drilling it at the front, not sure if they knew about the crash but there was a clear sense of ugly opportunistic thinking...few miles later all back together, getting again to the decent the same guy as last time round tries his skill, this time I am on his wheel and on the following short climb again we have a gap, we are 5 riders and no sight of the peloton behind us. Heading into a downhill righthand hairpin a large oncoming coach swerving into our lane, right in middle of the turn, nightmare to get around his cantilivering front right corner.We must have gone for about 2mi when a moto pulled by but instead of telling us our advantage he neutralizes the race. What? So we are stuck again. Peloton get back to us and we pass the crash site, riders still on the ground, 3 ambulances there and traffic piling up on both sides of the crash. After a lap neutralized they stopped the race, for about half an hour, us chatting and basking in the glorious sunshine. No coffees being served...everyone a bit annoyed but accepting the situation and trying to stay positiv. Restart of the race with remaining two laps was difficult, everyone cooled down and kind having lost their mojo it took to the final lap to have proper racing again. One rider tries his luck, nobody else in the mood to take him serious, still more than 10mi to go..Then horses on the circuit, all slow down again. I stayed up there amongst top 15 taking turns, helping to keep the speed high, another rider managed to jump off at the front, hats off for his incredibly strong show off, despite high speed we could only see the second rider manage to break to the front rider but didnt get them back. Coming around a corner on the outside onto a wider road I got carried out too far to suddenly heading straight into an oncoming car, everyone next and behind screaming already horrified. Every lap this corner was marshalled, every lap cars had been stopped well out of reach of us, why not in this final lap? I suppose the marshall didnt get informaed about the race being stopped and believed it was over. Communication with the marshalls is totally crucial, marshalls need to be 100% reliable in stopping traffic. Unfortunately there are drivers and rather run the marshall over rather than stopping for a bike race, thats reality and I was reminded of that. Final 2k speed was mental but I managed to stay around 10-12 wheel when the peloton was fully strung out and began to fracture in bits and pieces. Getting onto the final ramp people ahead of me began to falter, swerving left right together, me in between shouting to make them stay where they were. This time I encountered triple body contact, had to pull the brakes on the ramp to prevent the worst, had to go around them, accelerate on the big ring on the ramp and then managed to make good 4 or 5 places and got 4th of the group which meant 6th overall. This time my legs didnt give up on me on the last 200m.