Team Grumpy entered the event this year with particular enthusiasm, as we plan to ride the Duo Normand again this year, after missing last year's event. Both Gerry and I always look to this event for a glimpse of our form; this year we were particularly keen as Gerry's had a bad neck, and after a winter of diligent training (well, as diligent as my work life allows), I came down with something that resembled winter vomiting virus exactly two weeks before this event.
This year, I received a series of increasingly gloomy emails with dire weather forecasts from Gerry - on the day, however, we drove over to the HQ in quite pleasant though rather windy conditions. We'd requested an early start as we had a lunch reservation at Y Polyn, a rather excellent restaurant we usually go to after the event, so we were the second team to start. The R25/24 course begins by heading down the Neath valley on a dual carriageway (A465). On the day, this made pretty hard riding, as it was into the teeth of the wind. Fortunately, Team Grumpy were working well, taking spells of about 30sec each. While I felt at the time we were riding rather cautiously, in retrospect I'm glad we kept something back for the hilly second half. After the southern turn, we roared back up the dual carriageway to the halfway point, mostly clocking 30mph or more, before heading south again on the B road that runs alongside the main road. This road's considerably more challenging, with many short steep climbs that throw you off your rhythm. Added to which, there were considerable numbers of road-kill toads! Fortunately the overnight rain had mostly drained away, and other than the aforementioned flattened amphibia, there were no pools of standing water (as there were last year).
We finished with 57:58, which we were quite pleased with. It gave us 5th place, and we won the prize for first composite team. We were also pleased with the way we rode as a team - it's likely we will ride one (or both) of the upcoming Icknield RC and Team MK 2-up events in a few weeks' time.
While driving home the following day, we stopped off to look at the Uffington White Horse, and Uffington Castle. Very interesting, if a terribly exposed and bracing spot!
This is my pulse monitor trace (if you click on it, you'll get the full size version). The black, green and blue traces are heart rate, altitude, and speed respectively (speed has been multiplied by 4). The blue band represents level 3. The race ends where the pulse rate drops out of level 3 - the remaining trace is the return to the race HQ.
Final Results
Position
Names
Team Name/Club
Time
1
DAVID POVALL
DARREN CARPENTER
CWMCARN /CLIMB ON BIKES
54.48
2
STEVE BARRETT
COLIN WALLACE
MERTHYR CC
55.44
3
JOHN GRAVELLE
RHYS GRAVELLE
BYNEA CC
57.27
4
(1st) GARY JONES
ALISTAR JAMES
MD SPECIALISED
57.47
5
(1st) GERARD ORAM
ROBERT SAUNDERS
BYNEA CC
NORTH BUCKS CC
57.58
6
RHYS ROWLANDS
IAN DAVIES
ABERTILLERY WHEELERS
58.16
7
NEAL CRAIG
JOHN ASPELL
FORZA
58.29
8
GERAINT ‘SPOT’ EVANS
ANDREW EVANS
PORT TALBOT WHEELERS CC
58.30
9
JOHN TETLEY
GEORGE BURGESS
HEREFORD WHEELERS CC
58.43
10
RHYS JONES
JOHN HUGHES
ACME WHEELERS CC
59.50
11
ANTHONY REDMAN
JAYSON JAMES
ACME WHEELERS CC
1.00.05
12
CHRIS HUGHES
IAN RIVERS
HEREFORD WHEELERS
1.00.20
13
(1st) HYWELL STREDWICK
HEFIN PRICE
BYNEA CC
1.00.49< /font>
14
RYAN EVANS
CARL BANWELL
ACME WHEELERS
1.01.05
15
MARK ANDREWS
LYN JONES
MERTHYR CC
HIRAWUN CC
1.01.31
16
GARETH BATTLE
CHRIS WOOLLEY
ACME WHEELERS CC
1.01.48
17
PHIL WEAVER
PAUL CHUBB
LUDLOW CC
1.02.09
(inc 1 min late start)
18
GARETH CLEMENT
GLYNDWR LEWIS
ACME WHEELERS
1.02.21
19
PAUL STEPHENS
HEFIN JONES
ROSS ON WYE CC
1.03.26
20
IAN LEWIS
GAVIN LEWIS
CWMCARN/CLIMB ON BIKES
1.04.06
21
(1st) CAROLINE GAY
PHILLIP AUDSLEY
FORZA
1.04.21
22
CATALIN PATRICHI
ALAN COOK
ROSS ON WYE CC
1.05.01
23
CHRIS PRICE
DARREL WILLIAMS
PORT TALBOT WHEELERS
1.05.29
24
VERNON DAVIES
NIGEL PITT
PORT TALBOT WHEELERS CC
1.05.44
25
GERARD MAYBERY
MARK JONES
PONTYPOOL RC
PEMBS. VELO
1.06.42
26
STU MACFARLANE
IAN PEAKE
HEREFORD WHEELERS
1.08.34
27
MELANIE GRAHAM
KERRY GRAHAM
BUILTH & DISTRICT
CC
1.11.16
28
MICHAEL GEORGE
RHIANNON ACE
PEMBS VELO
1.17.47
29
GARY ‘SKIPPY’ GREGORY
DAVID ‘DAI’ TRIGGS
PORT TALBOT WHEELERS CC
1.19.41
30
ANTHONY ‘CHIPS’ VALLARIO
JOHN WILLIAMS
PORT TALBOT WHEELERS
1.25.22
31
RUSS WHITE
EFION WEINZWEIG
FORZA
DNF
32
MARTYN HERITAGE OWEN
JASON WILLIAMS
LIFEFORCE/
CERVELO
DNF
33
PAUL FALLON
STEVE REYNOLDS
ROSS ON WYE CC
CARDIFF 100MLS
DNS