Astwood '10', 12th August 2009

A warm and sultry day, with several quite heavy showers suggested that this evening's event might be a little damp.  By the evening, however, the weather had moderated to cloud and sunny spells.  Even the wind strength was rather modest.

After the weekend's '25' over on the F1, when I suffered on my hard carbon saddle (probably as a consequence of an altered riding position in turn due to new handlebars), I had replaced the saddle with a (still quite minimal) SLR saddle.  At least the replacement has a modicum of padding!

Turnout was a bit down this week, probably due to people being on holiday and the frequent rain showers during the day.  In the event, there was a nagging headwind for the leg out to Chicheley, and it was a bit quicker on the return leg.  I had high hopes of getting under 24 minutes, but as is so often the case was thwarted by the final climb to the finish line.  I ended up with 24:02.

On the other hand, the bike felt a whole lot more comfortable after the saddle change.  I'm now looking forward to the Beds Roads CC '25' on the F1B/25 on Sunday.  I prefer the F1B over the F1/25 - the F1B heads south from Tempsford, has fewer sliproads, but is quite severely undulating.  Having said that, I've had better times on it!