Stoke Hammond '10' 8/4/15

This was the first of our evening events in the calendar, and was on the revised Stoke Hammond ’10’ course, which moves the start away from the Kelly’s Kitchen roundabout. It’s potentially quite a quick course, I think, though the short stretch on the outward leg between the penultimate roundabout and the turn roundabout can be a bit challenging, as it’s uphill.

Anyway, it was rather nice evening that followed a very nice spring-like day. We saw more than the maximum field size turn out - 22 riders. I was pre-entered as #7 owing to the fact that I went home from the previous event (the Hardriders) with #7 still pinned to my skinsuit.

The start of this course is really quite quick, but it tilts up quite quickly, slowing the speed as you tirn left at a roundabout to join the main road. That section is uphillm but I held a reasonable speed, really only losing a lot of pace as I approached the next roudabout to join the dual carriageway. I then found my speed alternating between reasonably high and draggingly low, mostly due to gradient and exposure to the (admittedly gentle) breeze. Across the next roundabout and up the drag to the turn roundabout, and at last I could feel the benefit of gradient and breeze. The return leg seemed a lot quicker. All the way round the dual carriageway section, I was very aware that even though some attempt has been made to fill the little potholes that opened up soon after the road was opened, still further holes have appeared. Indeed, one rider lost his rear light as he thumped through one of them.

In the end I finished in 4th place with 23:00, second place on vets standard. Not too bad, though after the event I developed a sticky throat and dry cough. We noted that this course was slightly short.

Results