Astwood '10' 26/3/11

This event was the first in the North Bucks Road Club time trial league, and a designated 'come and try it' event.  As it turned out, we got a good turn out of at least 20 riders from local clubs, a few NBRC riders, but no new time triallists as far as I know.  It was slightly chilly as I rode over to Astwood, but nowhere near as cold as last week.  Lightly overcast, the sun was just trying to peep out from behind hazy clouds, and managing to warm the conditions up.  In fact the racing conditions seemed pretty similar to the previous two events. After my last two events, I was needing the confidence boost of an improved time, but as I rode up to Astwood, I really had little enthusiasm for racing (partly due to the fact I was to race the Icknield RC hilly 30k the following morning).  Anyway, once I started I soon dropped into racing mode, and for a change found I was able to stay a little bit more focussed.  I had my pal and arch-nemesis Tony starting one minute behind me - given my present form and his recent Majorcan mileage, it was really a matter of when rather than if he would catch me.  This he did shortly after North Crawley and a little over two-thirds of the way round the course. Ultimately I finished with 24:51 - still not great, but an improvement of 37 seconds on my last two rides on this course.  It was really good to see so many riders turn out for an event: it gave the impression we were all emerging from the long winter hibernation. Here's a map, with associated speed, heart rate and altitude traces (if you click the link). And the results:

Pos	No	Name	Club	Time	Cat	Vets Std	+ / -	Vets Std
1	8	Tim Carter	Virgin Active	22.10	V45	26.30	+4.20	1
2	5	Campbell Noon	TeamMK	22.57	V44	26.18	+3.21	4
3	14	Steve Torley	TeamMK	23.24	S
4	13	Tony Parks	NBRC	23.31	V46	26.42	+3.11	5
5	15	Jeremy Honor	TeamMK	23.32	V40	25.30	+1.58	9
6	18	Richard Golding	TeamMK	23.57	V42	25.54	+1.57	10
7	4	Ian Holmes	Virgin Active	24.10	V42	25.54	+1.44	11
8	20	Mike Smith	Team Corley	24.40	S
9	12	Robert Saunders	NBRC	24.51	V51	27.46	+2.55	7
10	17	Geoff Perry	TeamMK	24.54	V51	27.46	+2.52	8
11	11	R. Ashton	TeamMK	25.22	V44	26.18	+0.56	12
12	9	John Buchanan	TeamMK	25.59	V41	25.42	-0.17	14
13	16	Rich Connor	TeamMK	26.04	S
14	2	Daren Haseldine	TeamMK	26.12	V44	26.18	+0.06	13
15	10	Rob Chaundy	TeamMK	26.35	V59	29.34	+2.59	6
16	19	Steve Abraham	NBRC	26.38	S
17	1	Clive Faine	TeamMK	26.53	V64	30.45	+3.52	3
18	6	Gilbert Wheelwright	NBRC	27.44	V68	31.45	+4.01	2
19	7	Alex de Vries	TeamMK	27.49	S
20	3	Ian Stokes	NBRC	28.23	V51	27.46	-0.37	15