Astwood '10' 11/8/10 - oh no! number 13!

After a working day that mostly consisted of a very long meeting, with little food and drink, I was concerned how fuelled up I was for our penultimate evening event of the 2010 season.  Actually, I didn't even get half a mile from my office en route to the race before I suffered my mishap - a rear wheel puncture!  Although I suspect my apparent desire to ride that tyre to death and bare canvas contributed, I was a bit put out, particularly as work colleagues kept stopping to comment on what a nice bike it was, as I got a bit oily and cross.  I also discovered the limitations of small pocket-sized pumps (in this case a small Topeak carbon).  Of course partly that was down to the time I had available to keep pumping, but in the end I got the tyre up to a rideable inflation (expecting to get the use of someone's track pump later).By the time I reached the start point of the race, they were just lining up the first rider to start.  I hurried over and got a number.  Good job I'm not superstitious, as I ended up as #13.  Unfortunately there wasn't an opportunity to further inflate my rear tyre, and I thought that having another go might just result in letting air out rather than getting it in, so just lined up to start. It was immediately clear that the outward leg to Chicheley was going to be tough, with a headwind. I thought I'd just take it a bit easy in a headwind, as I have done in recent races.  By Chicheley, my legs felt strangely ineffective, with twitches which were rather reminiscent of times I'd had cramp when racing - fortunately I didn't start cramping. Cornering at Chicheley, it was good to get a bit of tailwind, and by North Crawley, I could see #12 ahead of me.  Or at least a rider I "thought" was #12!  Onwards and past the spot where I took a high speed tumble the other week and down the hill to the bottom of the finishing climb, all the while gaining on #12.  One final effort and up the climb to finish in 23:58, with #11 and #12 crossing the line just a bit before me. A mixed result: I really didn't feel on top of the form I've had this season, but on the other hand 23:58 isn't too bad for me on this course, judging from recent rides. Looking forward to upcoming open events, I'm riding a '25' on the F1B/25 on Sunday, and I plan to ride a '50' on 5th September.  After that, I have what will probably be my final event of 2010, the Duo Normand, on 19th September.  Look out for the preview of the 2010 Duo Normand, and the report after the event.