LondonSkaters Speed Team - Speed Skating & Rollerblading Club in London

tanya g · Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 11:26 am Subject:

PAXFORD ALAN D LONDON SKATERS SPEED TEAM 01:49:55 01:49:52

FRETWELL ROGER B LONDONSKATERS SPEED TEAM 01:27:24 01:27:18

BETTIS KAY BF LONDONSKATERS SPEED TEAM NP

Hope Kay is OK!!!!!

Well Done boys

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5914

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5914

Other UK skaters represented were:
Pammie Murray-Hopkin (Birmingham Wheels) in 1:49:10
Andy Porter (Powerslide) in 1:17:38
Derrick "Del Boy" Ritchie (Birmingham Wheels) in 1:27:22 just ahead of Roger

Not that many skaters there, which surprised me. Only 201 finishers listed.

Andy 27 · Joined: 10 May 2005 Posts: 20 Location: Leicester

The down hills were great...... weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

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

LOL, that's an interesting race report, Andy. How did it go, and would you recommend it for next year? Easy to get to, nice course, expensive?

Well done everyone, Kay, hope you're okay.

Andy 27 · Joined: 10 May 2005 Posts: 20 Location: Leicester

I thought it was an excellent course.

The coast road was completely closed in both directions for the whole 26 miles, which was great.

Extremly smooth road surface all the way.

Hills looked really bad, but were very easy in the end.

2 major uphills that sorted a few skaters out. But not that long.

2K warmup roll from the start to the actual start, which was great.

Age groups 3 mins apart on the start.

Different chip actually in the number 20 euros to hire but 20 euros back at the end.

I would say make sure you have a car if you plan to stay anywhere other than the finish, as Italian timing was as good as ever and the bus back to the start didnt show up for a long while and the skaters couldnt get to bags after the event.

We hired a car and got a cheap hotel about 500m from the start, which was great.

1p flights each way....lol (genoa airport 1 hour from start and only 30 mins from finish line)

Will definitely go again.

Alan · Joined: 19 Sep 2005 Posts: 642 Location: Hackney, London

For those of us at the back it wasn't such fun. They opened the roads after about 1h 30 mins (despite saying it was a 2 hour limit). So people like Kay and I were skating in the traffic for the last 8k, not sure that we were on the right road and when I got to the finish it wasn't there! They dismantled it about 15 mins before! I only knew I had finished because every one else was there, changing on the roadside. So that explains Kay's DNF. She was fine otherwise. I don't know how I got my time because the mats had been taken up when I got to the end (where ever it was, still don't know) I timed myself at 1h 48m 11s and that was after I had seen everyone and stopped. I think they just saw me arrive and guessed a time.
I won't do it again; it is an elite race about 200 starters; 20 over 60's, we were last to go, and when I lost my line (dropping of the front and missing the back), I was on my own with no hope of another line.
Andy's right about the transport too, I relied on the trains and spent most of the weekend on them. It's a car culture there, the train service is rubbish, at least at the weekend, it was cheap however.

Ulf Haase · Joined: 11 Oct 2006 Posts: 1

Hello!

Here are some photos from the weekend in Savona:

http://www.ulfhaase.se/
--> Updates
----> European Master Marathon Road Championships

Best regards
Ulf

Rick · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 5914

There is an interesting thread on the Bont forum about the race and the amount of cheating. Apparently the referee quit after have a decision overturned.

Andy 27 · Joined: 10 May 2005 Posts: 20 Location: Leicester

yep, 2 judges actually.

Always cheating in italy, unfortunately.

win a medal there and its a gold anywhere else....

roger · Joined: 26 Feb 2004 Posts: 531

We just got back from Italy after spending a week cycling out there after the Marathon.

The marathon was a bit of a mixed bag, in some ways wonderful, but with some disappointments.

The best thing about the marathon was the course. It was really beautiful, along the coast - and the weather was great, so we were racing along past beaches crowded with sunbathers. We had been warned about the hills, but in the end they weren't so bad; if I had been more familiar with the course I might have gone harder on the hills, instead of saving myself for the big one that never came.

The biggest disappointment for Kay and myself, was that the organisers re-opened the road and tore up the finish line before Kay - and plenty of others - had finished. Kay would have had a time of about 1:47 if the mats had been in place to record it. The race documents had stated that the race time limit was 2 hours.

Despite the chaos at the end we both enjoyed taking part and would probably do it again given the opportunity, as it really is a beautiful course.

It was also good to see the other Brits out there as noted above, and it gave the finishing sprint more spice to be racing Derrick for the line.

This was the second year running that we had gone to the European Masters, and one disappointing change from last year was the domination of this years results by Italian and German athletes. Last year it seemed that half the nations of Europe won a gold, but this year they all went to Italy or Germany.

Winners that may be familiar to London Skaters are Mauro Guenci, 1st in M40 and Stephanie Pipke 2nd in F30.