EJCTA 2024 - Cat.5 - Stage 2

Race Course was much worse compared to 2023 Stage 2 race course and also in general not the most exciting. (triangle with 3km narrow and 2km wider road - race was started around 250m into the narrow segment)

Cat.5 only had 3 chances to collect points for the white jersey in 2024 (in 2023 there was two or three sprints for white alone in stage 2!)

First sprint for white was on Lap 1, even though the race book stated "Ronde 3". Race Book refered to the lap counter at the start/finish line....and laps are counted backwards.

Was adviced by my father to sprint in lap 3 for white points, which I did. But it was "Ronde 1", which was the green sprint according to the race book.

After talking to many other kids and parents it is assured that not only we confused this information...

Even if there would have been a tiny chance for the starters of the last line to be in front at the end of first lap, that was completely taken by a big crash after around 2km of racing.
Been told that the leading group directly accelerated when they heard the bikes crashing behind them.
Crash involved a lot of kids and effected the race week of so many riders negativly, neutralising the race until everyone is together again would have been a better decision impov.
After all, all participants spend a lot of time and money to get to Assen for racing. Having chances taken to reach a certain goal right from the start is not a nice feeling. (white on the layout of that race course and only so little chances to collect points for white)

Wednesdays climbing stage also only gave one chance to collect points on white. The last chance on white was for the top 5 of the Thursday ITT.


Stage 2 race was raced quite hard, especially the chasing after the crash.
For some reason the group decided to ride 25ish kmh on last lap without being challenged by some riders....everyone agreed this was a good idea, especially after a 5-6km long high effort chase.
During the slow down of last lap a lot of kids where able to catch up on leading group with a chance for a sprint finish and same time as leading grp.
My decision making in the preparation of the final sprint was very bad. Came in P14 and could have been a lot better on that day.