New Year's Day '10'

This is an event that's always a good start to the year, despite the generally cold weather: it's good to blow the cobwebs off, and it's a change from turbo training! The weather forecast was pretty appalling: heavy rain starting well before the event, and continuing all day. Despite this, we had 17 riders show up, along with two timekeepers, a marshal (and sign placer) and a pusher off - thanks, Steph, Tony, Bryan and Dick! Fortunately, the forecast rain wasn't in evidence as we all signed on and rode the event. For me, the race was a bit of an eye-opener. Quick at times, I found it pretty tough going a lot of the time. I have no idea why this was - there wasn't really much wind out there. Every time the road went gently up, my speed dropped away. At least I was reasonably comfortable on the bike. I finished in 4th place with a disappointing 25:24. Still, I was first NBRC rider (I think the other guys were on rod bikes!). The rain held off until I was setting off to ride home - it got pretty heavy, and I got home completely drenched and cold. Due to the problems I've been having with the eTap Aero setup on the P5, I had decided to ride the P3 today. It's current configuration has Powertap P1 pedals, with vintage wheels: Hed Stinger 90 front and Corima disc rear. I've recently upgraded this bike to 11-speed, to ensure interchangeability with the P5. This itself was a bit complicated as 9-speed freehubs won't take a Shimano 11-speed cassette. Full results at the NBRC website.  Here's the Garmin trace: