LondonSkaters Speed Team - Speed Skating & Rollerblading Club in London

Farhana · Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 259 Location: Surrey

Did anyone do this last year?

Currently we have these members listed for 2005 marathon:

Kay & Roger
Gav
Hans
Farhana

roger · Joined: 26 Feb 2004 Posts: 531

This will be the first time for me and Kay, but we have skated around Düsseldorf quite a bit in the past, which is one reason why we wanted to do this one.

I think I am safe in saying that the route will be flat, apart from two or three bridge crossings.

I read somewhere recently that they have had a good entry for the inline marathon, about 1500, so there should be plenty of pace lines to mix it up with.

We are flying from Mallorca to Düsseldorf so we won't see you on the way out; we will text you when we arrive.

On the German pages its showing there is still an option to register on the day for 63 Euros, subject to prior e-mail confirmation, so its not too late for others to join us!

Natasha · Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 2973 Location: Basingstoke

Good luck for Sunday everyone!!!

Xia · Joined: 06 Apr 2004 Posts: 874 Location: Geneva (Suisse)

Best of luck for all of those racing this sunday!

Fred_Paris · Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 1:35 pm Subject:

Good luck for the race on sunday everybody Smile

subliminal message for hans and gav : don't go too fast, slow down, slow down, you have time... Twisted Evil

Erika · Joined: 09 Oct 2004 Posts: 386 Location: Lambeth/New Cross

Good luck to everyone racing

Hans · Posted: Mon May 09, 2005 8:47 am Subject:

Here is the race report:

Farhana, Gav and I turned up in Dusseldorf at about midday to some pretty ominous clouds which we later found out, was to set the tone for the rest of the weekend. During Saturday as we wandered around town sorting out or registration, we had the following weather systems in constant attendance, light gentle rain, medium pouring rain, blue skies and sunshine and rain with fat hail stones. Needless to say, the unspoken thought most of the time was, "please let the race be fine". Later on during the evnbing, we met up with Kay and Roger at a pasta party hosted by Sebby's friends in Dusseldorf, discussed the race and watched some cool videos on the large screen.

As we got back to the hotel that evening, the skies had cleared up and there were no clouds to be seen, things had started to look up. On sunday morning we got to the start with plenty of time to spare Wink

, warmed up, got changed and went of to the start line (weather at this point was great, the sun was out), but the roads were quite damp in patches mixed with the detritus from the trees. Gavin and I made the silly mistake of being too far behind the front pack at the start, five rows from the front and when the gun went, we lost the front pack almost immediately. We "worked" (Gav leading me following), to try and catch the leading pack but they were pulling away at an alarming rate. The leading pack then broke into two and Gav made a "huge" push and caught up with the tail end of the second pack. I couldn't keep up with him and had to wait around for the third chasing pack of about 15 skaters. The course was flat but not very quick as it had a lot of turns, some really poor surfaces (all of us at one point or another it seems nearly stacked by stumbling into a pot hole in the middle of the road) and above all, many places on the course were still very damp from the previous day's downpour.

I had the unfortunate experience of being pulled down by a skater who could not take a turn around the 38km mark when i was in a very good position in the third chasing pack. Buy the time i got up with my skinned knees and elbows and absolutly furious and shaken, the third pack had disappeared. I tried to chase them down given that it was only 3km to the finish, but I didn't catch them up. I was so mad and a little shaken. Its my first time stacking in a race and made worse by the fact that it was someone else who pulled me down (still calming down).

Gavin and i waited at the finiish line for the others and while we were there the heavens opened, it was a sight to see Farhana in her LSST skin suit come charging to the finish line in the pouring rain (this memory will live with me for a long while). The team did very well and a special mention has to go out to Gav and Farhana, Gav for catching that second pack and Farhana for some deft work jumping pace lines during the race and making a break for it at the end.

Results are

Winning time 1:17:15

Overall place: (22 mens race, 22 - overall)
Place in class: 6
St No: 5218
Name : Gavin Pollock (GBR)
Class: MHK
Gun time: 01:22:58
Chip time: 01:22:54

Overall place: (48 mens race, 48 - overall)
Place in class: 8
St No: 4916
Name : Hans Brown (GBR)
Class: MHK
Gun time: 01:26:20
Chip time: 01:26:16

Overall place:(151 - mens race, 170 - overall)
Place in class: 11
St No: 3958
Name : Roger Fretwell (GBR)
Class: M45
Gun time: 01:37:32
Chip time: 01:37:10

Overall place:(44 - womens race, 318 - overall)
Place in class: 8
St No: 4917
Name : Farhana Brown (GBR)
Class: W30
Gun time: 01:45:27
Chip time: 01:45:01

Overall place:(73 - womens race, 441 - overall)
Place in class: 14
St No: 3957
Name : Kay Bettis (GBR)
Class: W40
Gun time: 01:52:22
Chip time: 01:51:57

Xia · Joined: 06 Apr 2004 Posts: 874 Location: Geneva (Suisse)

Thanks you,
nice times from everyone!
Farhana, I'm well impressed!
And 1h26 with a Stack, pretty impressive me think!
Alex

Farhana · Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 259 Location: Surrey

As a speed team ... WE ROCK !!!

I'm really impressed with the way we all support and encourage each other. That is what got me through this race.

Thank you team mates Smile

Fred_Paris · Posted: Mon May 09, 2005 10:57 am Subject:

Nice race report Wink

Question for you hans, did you put your intzcore wheels for this race ? just looking for some feedback Smile

Nice times for all of you regarding the winning time, it seems you enjoyed it anyway Smile

Hans · Posted: Mon May 09, 2005 11:00 am Subject:

In my hyper Mach II.. the course was too wet and the Intzcore wheels too new to use them

Fred_Paris · Posted: Mon May 09, 2005 11:07 am Subject:

yeah new wheels and rain Smile

I figured this out the hard way in lille, I will explain that in the other post about Lille. Smile

Natasha · Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 2973 Location: Basingstoke

This is so going to be LSST's year... I'm so so so proud of you, wish I had been there with a large bottle of champagne (do they sell it in the Vic?) Maybe wait till after the race on Sunday, eh?

Gav · Posted: Mon May 09, 2005 3:42 pm Subject:

Message from website... Hey Hans, you're becoming famous Wink

name: Andrew Yungé GORDON
message: Congratulations to all your participants, particularly Hans Brown who must have trained very hard over winter. He did 1:37 in Berlin (8 mins. behind me) and managed an impressive 1:26 (11 mins. ahead of me) in very windy conditions in Düsseldorf on 09.05.05

Roger was just behind me in Berlin and 10 seconds ahead of me in Düsseldorf.

Where was Mike? I was expecting him to produce a flying time in Düsseldorf.

Are any of you going to be in Duisburg or the MittelRheine marathons next month? If you are, let me know in advance. It would be nice to meet up before the marathon.

See you at a marathon soon.

Best wishes
Andrew Yungé GORDON
Bornheim, Germany.

Ray · Joined: 30 Mar 2004 Posts: 806 Location: Dagenham

Brilliant skating in what sound like pretty difficult conditions! Particular congratulations to Farhana - a real turnaround from the disappointment of Hamburg - this is our year!!