I think Sunday was a combination of factors. A field that was too big, with a massive spread of ability and experience. The roads were incredibly busy, and there was nothing to split the field - no decent climbs and nothing too technical. As a result the field stayed together. People were taking crazy risks, crossing the white line to move up in the face of oncoming traffic. The commisaire black flagged it because of the standard of riding. Same thing happened in our national vets RR. The responses from the riders were appalling, demonstrating that folk didn’t know how it should all work, eg expecting the NEG motorbikes/marshalls to stop traffic for the race rather than the riders taking responsibilty for their own safety. Despite both races being black flagged for the same reasons, folk continued to ride in the same dangerous ways, but yet there were no DQ’s.
If you’re going to do one thing before your race on Sunday, study the Race Smart section of the British Cycling website. I’m not sure many people in the race had actually done that.