Stony '11.4' 20th May 2009 (League Round 4)

I had originally expected to be unable to ride this event, due to work commitments.  After several days of really quite bad weather, I was quite pleased to have been able to ride the event, as the wind dropped (and I am sure it was considerably more gentle that the forecast 14mph!), and the sun came out.

Judging from the readout on my HRM, the ride out to Stony Stratford was  quite an effective warmup, especially when keeping the speed up negotiating the roundabout over the A5!

As usual, I found the outward leg rather hard.  Indeed, at one point in the climb up to Nash, I was down to 12 mph, a most definitely unintended consequence of  trying out using lower gears than usual on the climb.  To be honest, I suspect that carrying an extra 4kg bodyweight can't be helping me on this course!  Upon rounding the turn roundabout, I was rather dismayed to see Tony Parks getting rather close - this seemed to spur both of us on - it took until after Beachampton to catch me, and once he did catch me, he only took another 4 secs out of me.

I think this might have been my best ride thus far on this course in 2009, but on the other hand, I had thought I'd do a bit better than this...perhaps this is the fate of being at least a little competitive! 

In addition to the potholes that opened up over the winter, the course had a generous addition of mud (presumably deposited by a tractor), which made one corner in particular a little awkward! 

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