Cones Stop Play!

There was sunshine on Bishopton, a car park full of riders and shiny bikes – not sure about the guy on the fixed Dolan, though – lots of marshals, pieces to feed the five thousand, the requisite scout hall strip; and – the council cutting the verges down on Westferry. Cones Stop Play…

Therefore – no dice, all go home.

It’s easy to be a smarty pants, but shouldn’t it be on the race organisers ‘tick box list’ to check with the local council?

And right on cue, Musselburgh’s Andy Mathieson comes over for a chat, he works for the Highways Authority in Edinburgh and explains that there’s a thing called the Scottish Road Works Register, which anyone can access on the internet

All roadworks and events which use the public highway should be registered on this site.

This lets the council see if there are conflicts of interest; however it is possible that the contractor “took a flier” and did the work without registering it. In which case there’s a case for a claim against them?

Anyway – c’est la vie, but I don’t see it happening at the Belgian TTT champs.

Graham McGarrity had a go at me at the start – for dropping him from the GS Modena TTT sometime back in the last millennium; not that he’s a man to cast up.

The longest journey of the day has to be Carlos Riise’s long haul down from Shetland – but don’t worry, he has a 25 this afternoon and another one tomorrow.

Viktor has just phoned; he reckons that the organisers should have sent us all out to tool hire centres for each of us to hire a lawn mower,:  helped the contractors cut the grass then run the race – thanks Vik.

He also recounted the time that he was at a kermesse in Belgium and the race marshals wouldn’t let the fire engine out of the fire station ’til the break had passed.

Anyway, I’m in the City Caff with my full Scottish breakfast now and the aborted TTT is but a distant memory.

At least Dave Martin is happy, he was up all night with a bad tummy and gets to go back to bed.