Stony '11.4' 19th August 2009 (League Round 7)

Not only was this event the final evening event of the North Bucks time trial series (the remaining events are weekend morning), but it was the seventh counting round in the League. A cloudy morning gave way to brilliant blue skies and high temperatures.  Oh, and strong wind!

I rode over from work to the meeting point at Stony Stratford, dodging the usual strange driver-roundabout situations.  The good weather resulted in a good turnout of riders.  At the appointed minute, off I went, and pretty soon found the outward leg was to be blighted by the strong wind.  Still, I persevered through Beachampton (fortunately avoiding the tractors that were going to and fro along the course), and on up to the climb up to Nash.

Now, one might have thought that, in the years I've been riding this course, I'd have cracked the Nash climb but, no, I still found myself dipping into the red zone with my heart rate rising and speed dropping.  Once in Nash, things got a bit easier.  I saw a rider pushing his bike, with a flat rear tyre.

The return leg is always much easier as it's got a fair old amount of descent in it.  I was interested to see how the new Tula bars would affect both my confidence and ability in the turns.  As it happens, I found them fine for negotiating the course.

After Beachampton I rode through the corner with the rough old surface unable to avoid the holes (due to a passing motorbike) and was pleased that the Tulas didn't slip in the handlebar stem.  On the other hand, my bike computer stopped registering speed - presumably the sensor had bumped down on the forks.

Around the final corner and on to the finishing line.  The ride had felt pretty good, so I was disappointed with my time of 28:28, though in th grand scheme of things, that won't have been too bad.