Cambridge CC '10' 30/4/16

This event was on the F2D/10, and had a full field, with 17 women and two mixed tandems. The women all started as a block near the start of the event. NBRC had three riders on the startsheet: David Price and Debbie Vanner had also entered, though David DNS’d due to a bad cold. I went over with Katja, who was to start some 77 minutes before me. It was a bit breezy with a stiff breeze that made the outbound leg much quicker than the return. To add insult to injury, the middle of the field were caught in a nasty rain squall with significantly tougher wind. I could barely steer the bike while warming up. Fortunately the A428 has decently high embankments either side which offer some shelter. I had a clear run through, particularly at the turn, which is really quite good - you can see it on the Garmin trace. The only traffic issues were right after the start - you head west on the old A428 and turn sharp left at the roundabout to go down the sliproad to the A428. There was a learner driver being quite cautious, with a lorry and another car behind them. I don’t suppose it caused too much delay, but it always feels like it does. And no doubt the learner driver was being a bit anxious about all the TT bikes wobbling around. As expected, the outbound leg was really quick, and the return a fair bit slower. The trispoke was a bit of a handful at times with the headwind on the return leg. The finish is a bit annoying, because you have to go up the sliproad, turn left at a RAB and finish a little way down the road. Last time I rode this course I got stopped at the RAB in a big gear - this year I had no trouble. I was tied in 18th place with 22:18 judging from the provisional results posted online. Debbie finished in 26:26. Katja won the women’s prize with 23:19, 38th place overall. Here are the top 20 finishers:

Pos.	Name	No.	Club	Time
1	Simon Norman	110	Bedfordshire Road CC	00:20:02
2	John Mulvey	101	Cambridge University CC	00:20:32
3	David McGaw	90	Cambridge CC	00:20:34
4	Carl Whitwell	100	St Ives CC	00:20:37
5	Tom Trimble	70	CC Ashwell	00:20:44
6	John Gull	71	Expresso Library	00:20:46
7	Oliver Milk	25	Tri-Anglia Triathlon Club	00:20:57
8	Matthew Eley	115	Ely & District CC	00:21:16
9	William Smith	60	CC Ashwell	00:21:29
10	Ken Platts	105	Cambridge CC	00:21:38
11	Andy Whale	65	CC Ashwell	00:21:41
12	Ian Short	112	API - Metrow	00:21:47
13	Matt Meek	72	Cambridge University CC	00:21:48
14	Neil Wood	102	Did Deep Coaching	00:21:53
15	Rory Havis	85	St Ives CC	00:22:00
16	Tim Davies	75	Icknield RC	00:22:10
17	Hugo Hocknell	106	Team Salesengine.co.uk	00:22:14
18	Andrew Grant	27	Cambridge CC	00:22:18
19	Robert Saunders	97	North Bucks RC	00:22:18
20	Keith Dorling	77	Team Bottrill	00:22:26