Stoke Hammond '10' 15th July 2009

It was rather wet when I set off from this house in the morning, and while the weather dried up, the rather strong wind did not moderate appreciably.  A modest field of 13 riders was possibly due to it being holiday season.  The strong wind was blowing almost directly in our faces at the start, and so made it hard on the ride up to the dual carriageway section - at times I was well below 20 mph, though having the rider in front getting closer was a bit of a carrot.  Once up on the dual carriageway, the bike was a bit twitchy at times to the turn (I was riding the Hed trispokes). 

As usual the lovely smooth surface on the new road made things easier, and in particular, the return leg was pretty quick, and I finished with 23:31, which must be one of my better times on this course.

So, on the one hand, I feel pretty upbeat about the event and my ride, though on the other, my heart rate seemed a little reluctant to rise to its usual levels. 

There's a gallery of photos of the event over at the NBRC website (courtesy of JayBee, who didn't ride due to a bust seatpin)