Well, this event marked my return to racing after a 4 week layoff (away for cycle touring - see elsewhere in this blog, then last week's event got called off). It did feel a little strange.
The evening was really quite nice, probably a little over 20 degrees, and sunny, though rather windier than the BBC's predicted 14mph easterly, I reckon. Still, it made for a fast opening leg to Chicheley. In fact it was pretty fast almost to North Crawley. As usual, I lost focus a bit during the drags after North Crawley, but even so I was surprised when Tony P. came past at about 18 minutes. Still, he didn't get far away from me, finishing in around 22:37 to my 23:40.
Predictably, Tim won the event - with a 21, but some nice times were recorded this evening. I was somewhat gratified to find an extra-ripe banana lurking unexpectedly in the bottom of my backpack - presumably it had been there since last week! And very tasty it was, too.
Results
| Pos | No | Rider | Club | Time | Cat | Vets Std | Plus/Minus | Vets Pos |
| 1 | 15 | Tim Carter | NBRC | 21.23 | V43 | 26.06 | 4.43 | 2 |
| 2 | 18 | Simon Cannings | TeamMK | 22.20 | S | |||
| 3 | 4 | Michael Smith | TeamMK | 22.34 | S | |||
| 4 | 20 | Tony Parks | NBRC | 22.37 | V44 | 26.18 | 3.41 | 5 |
| 5 | 17 | Lindz Barral | i-team cc | 23.30 | S | |||
| 6 | 19 | Robert Saunders | NBRC | 23.40 | V49 | 27.20 | 3.40 | 6 |
| 7 | 21 | Geoff Perry | TeamMK | 23.44 | V49 | 27.20 | 3.36 | 7 |
| 8 | 3 | John Buchanan | NBRC | 24.23 | S | |||
| 9 | 11 | Darren Haydon | NBRC | 24.55 | S | |||
| 10 | 16 | Rob Chaundy | TeamMK | 25.13 | V57 | 29.06 | 3.53 | 4 |
| 11 | 10 | Matthew Barton | TeamMK | 25.14 | V40 | 25.30 | 0.16 | 10 |
| 12 | 2 | Brian Primett | NBRC | 25.29 | V42 | 25.54 | 0.25 | 9 |
| 13 | 7 | Clive Faine | TeamMK | 25.30 | V62 | 30.16 | 4.46 | 1 |
| 14 | 14 | Stuart Chung | NBRC | 25.34 | S | |||
| 15 | 9 | Gilbert Wheelwright | NBRC | 26.48 | V66 | 31.15 | 4.27 | 3 |
| 16 | 13 | Chris Selley | NBRC | 27.52 | V40 | 25.30 | -2.22 | 12 |
| 17 | 1 | David Skeggs | NBRC | 27.54 | V40 | 25.30 | -2.24 | 13 |
| 18 | 5 | Alan Lawson | NBRC | 27.57 | V41 | 25.42 | -2.15 | 11 |
| 19 | 12 | Yvonne Gurney | TeamMK | 28.03 | L | |||
| 20 | 8 | Tony Brunton | NBRC | 28.46 | V44 | 26.18 | -2.28 | 14 |
| 21 | 6 | Gordon Batcock | NBRC | 29.48 | V69 | 32.00 | 2.12 | 8 |