This past weekend Carnegie Caulfield Cycling Club (CCCC) hosted the Philip Island Grand Prix road race. As usual they did an outstanding job and I thank each and every one of their volunteers as well as CycleSport Victoria (CSV) for putting on this great event.
Nearly 200 riders took part in the Open Category and 120 finished the 130km race (was supposed to be 110km but who’s counting…). 49 teams fought for valuable KOM and Sprint points to win the overall teams classification.
I had asked for permission from the CCCC to use my helmet cam to record this event and they had no problem with it. They can see how this helps promote their event as well as the sport of cycling. I’ve had overwhelming positive feedback from cyclists all over the world about the helmet cam vids and dozens of them have even told me they’ve made the step to bike racing after seeing these videos. I can’t say how much that pleases me. This is what it’s all about!
Unfortunately the CycleSport Victoria took a difference stance and made the decision to interpret and enforce a UCI rule that states the following:
1.3.004 No technical innovation regarding anything used, worn or carried by any rider or other license holder during a race (bicycles, equipment mounted on them, accessories, helmets, clothing, means of communication, etc.) may be used until approved by the UCI Executive Committee.
I can understand their position on this so I complied and didn’t wear the helmet cam. Fortunately another rider who wasn’t aware of this ruling managed to capture the whole race on his helmet cam. You beauty! Thanks for sending this in. CSV fined him $100 for the infraction but the website RaceDayRush has generously offered to help pay the fine. A 2hr version of the helmet cam video will available at their website in the coming days. Feel free to check it out and create a free account with them to get access to all their helmet cam videos. Since winter is creeping up on us here in Australia I’ll surely be watching their library of high quality race videos on the trainer during those cold wet mornings.
Check out the short version of the race video below. As usual, CCCC posted the results pronto and they give a great write-up of how the race panned out here. Some outstanding pictures by photographer Arnaud Domange shown there as well. I was working with Arnaud to use some of his photos in the video to help with the commentary of the race story however we couldn’t come to a financial agreement in time. My fault for asking so late. Hopefully in the future.
My apologies for the darkness of the video. The camera must have been pointed a bit too much upwards and was catching too much light. It seems to have thrown off the exposure and the riders turned out very dark.
If you haven’t seen them already, there’s a few more helmet cam videos posted here.
