Team News – Haribo Beacon at Ster van zuid-Limberg

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Emotional time for Team manager Matt writes about his first race as team manager at Haribo Beacon plus guests at Dutch event Ster van zuid-Limberg

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Team News – Haribo Beacon at Ster van zuid-Limberg

Matt writes … For my first race as a team manager, this race did make me a little anxious as it is a huge race. A 33 car convoy and 197 riders – more than the Tour de France!

Once we arrived, we went over the TT course and the finishing circuit in the morning spin The lads went out with Ken Jones from Bioracer (who provide the team’s kit) who knows the area like the back of his hand.

The lads got back and got fed and had a bit of a kip, then we had the Time Trial. With myself and Charlie Tennick being in the team car, we had Ken giving the lads a helping hand. First rider off, Joey put in a good time. We rotated our riders in the team car one at a time to get the course in their head and look at the racing lines.

As Levi Moody set off on a storming ride where he railed every corner and put in a really solid time I was back in the convoy waiting for the next rider off when it suddenly went wrong.

levi_moody_profileLevi (right) had unfortunately suffered a cardiac arrest after finishing his effort. I had to jump out of the car and go and try to help out. I ended up in the ambulance and the medical team were incredible.

I had to make several phone calls to try to inform the right people. Luckily Levi came round very quickly and made a remarkable recovery and was clearly still very ill but not in any danger. It was one of the scariest times I’ve experienced, my first race as a manger it suddenly dawned on me how much responsibility lies on me”.

I managed to contact Levi’s parents who were quickly on their way to the tunnel to come over. The following morning, I took some of the lads to visit Levi and make sure they could see he was well so they could focus on the race.

Then stage 2, a pretty flat 113km road race. It was pretty hectic in the bunch but we settled in well and got into the swing of things. We suffered two punctures like the one for Joey Walker who after 60km got back in the cars and straight into the bunch before we had time to get back in the car, really impressive for a first year junior.

Then James Shaw (Kuurne winner) one of our main riders punctured with 5km to go. We had a quick change and had to get him back in which involved some tyre screeching and 42mph corners but he was back in very quickly and showed real maturity not panicking and finished safely in the main bunch.

I’d say it was a successful day and we’re looking good for tomorrow.

Matt

 

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