Even the results weren’t clear this morning, with a technical meeting due to be held to discuss the chaos, ahead of the official placings.
The gruelling 120 km course, which started in Lindos, was testing enough for the 63 riders, but the real ordeal came as the race had to be restarted after 30 km.
Sam Firby was top Jersey rider in sixth with Richard Tanguy not far behind in eighth.
The first act of this farce came as three riders broke away from the pack after around 2 km when they should have waited to be flagged to go after nearly 5 km in what is called a neutralised start.
They claimed after the race that they had in fact been flagged to do so.
After seeing this, Bermuda’s Geri Mewett, a semi-professional in America, chased them, leaving the pack, which featured Jersey’s Sam Firby, Richard Tanguy and Chris Spence, a fair distance behind.
The next, more serious, sketch came as an accident occurred when a fire engine passed the group, with various reports as to the exact involvement of the vehicle.
Details are unconfirmed but stories that came back from the route ranged from it hitting a rider, to it forcing the riders over to one side and causing an Ynys Mon cyclist into a nasty fall.
With officials distracted, the comedy of errors continued, with the leading péloton going down the wrong route, although the next group continued down the correct route.
Ultimately it caused a 45-minute delay as riders were regrouped and then held in waiting, as officials and team managers held a heated discussion – just what you need in Rhodes.
‘It was awful.
We just stood around not knowing what was going on,’ described Tanguy.
With riders out of their settled pace, the restarting of a race only a few kilometres from a steep climb would undoubtedly have affected the outcome, and riders from Guernsey and the Isle of Man were seen pulling out of the event due to the shambolic nature of events.
Things did run rather more smoothly from that point as the majority finished the course.
But even being surrounded by hills, beautiful scenery and the bay not far away failed to cheer the Jersey team’s spirits.
Team manager Colin Perry summed up most people’s thoughts when he said: ‘The organisation …
crazy,’ and with that the team were off and ready to prepare for tomorrow’s time trials.
Having already moved the town criterium out of town, and now the road race, the team managers will be forgiven for approaching tomorrow’s trials with a deal of trepidation.
