Stoke Hammond 10 2/7/14

Another long day at work left me tired and uncertain how well I’d ride at this club event. We did have a good turnout, possibly because it wasn’t a bad evening, with a light and variable wind. 

Lining up at the start, as number 17, I was rather aware of traffic coming past, fresh out of the newly ‘upgraded’ roundabout behind me. As usual, my passage through the first roundabout was somewhat cautious as a result, with the next being quite straightforward. On up the drag to the roundabout where we turn left onto the dual carriageway, and I was pleased o feel rather good, keeping a decent speed up until the roundabout itself.

Things went a little awry on the dual carriageway - my speed seemed to rise and fall for no apparent reason. I decided to just work at it as best I could. Round the turn and things felt good again. I negotiated the roundabout off the dual carriageway and sped off down the descent.

Luckily, I had no traffic issues on the remaining two roundabouts, and shot past the timekeeper quite quickly. Unfortunately, my ageing eyes don’t really allow me to read my Garmin display, particularly in evening events with sunglasses on, so I didn’t really know how I’d done - particularly since I failed to stop the computer after crossing the line. I was rather pleased to find I’d recorded 22:27 for third place (10 seconds behind Geoff Bunyan and well over a minute behind the winner, Jason Gurney)

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