Norlond Combine 50, F1/50 - 18/5/08

This was my first '50' since the 2006 season.  When leaving the house for the event, I was fairly optimistic, but upon arriving at Tempsford I realised that the northbound legs would be tough going due to the head wind. Anyway. onward I rode, fuelled by the knowledge that this was the event nominated as the North Bucks '50' championship event - one other NBRC rider had entered.

The start for this version of the F1/50 lies quite close to the Tempsford flyover, so pretty quickly I found mself roaring down the sliproad onto the A1.  As expected, the ride to the first turn, at the Sandy RAB was splendidly quick.  Unfortunately, once I'd rounded the turn and  started on the long leg north, it was apparent just how tough it would be (I don't know what my average was, but I saw 22mph quite a lot).  I grovelled northward, across the Black Cat RAB, to the turn at Buckden, where I caught number 55, a rider  apparently on the comeback trail, and riding a bike with a single speed freewheel and no tribars.  This seemed to spur him on a bit, it took me to the Sandy RAB to shake him off (and even then not by much judging from the final result).  Number 60 caught me for 4 minutes just before crossing the Black Cat RAB - at somewhat less than the halfway mark.  (My split for the first 25 miles was just sub-hour).  The southbound leg was pretty quick, but being the indomitable soul I am, I wasn't too worried about the second northbound leg.  Well, actually it was just as horrible as the first time I headed north!

During the event, I'd been looking out for my club mate and not seen him - at the finish, it transpired he was a DNS due to back problems.

After the event, I had still hamstrings - felt like someone had been  kicking me in the buttocks!  I had 2:01:33on the result board (about 17th place), while the event was won by Barry Charlton in an almost unbelievable 1:48!

Top 20 results (as it turned out, I just snuck into the top 20)