Checking the BBC weather forecast before setting off with my North Bucks Road Club team mate Tony, I was a little worried. While the forecast was for white clouds and light showers, the wind was straight from the north and about 21-22mph. It should also be evident from the weather icon to the left that the BBC turned out to be rather economical with the truth!As we drove over to Newmarket, Tony and I got increasingly worried about the weather. The wind was certainly as forecast, the trees and foliage were bending alarmingly. More bothersome were the heavy showers that were cruising along. Some of the showers were really very heavy. Reaching Newmarket, we found the race HQ rather more easily that in the past (cf the API-Metrow event last summer) - it was in a modern and rather swanky leisure centre. We grabbed our numbers and waited for a particularly heavy shower to pass before going back to the car and driving over to a wide-verged lane near the start.
We sat in the car while more heavy showers came over. I got ready, but sat in the car. At some point Tony realised that he'd forgotten a crucial bit of kit - his skin suit! This gave him a pretty good excuse not to ride in vile conditions... I waited in the car until the rain eased, then rode over to the start. So - no warmup! I realised pretty quickly that my GPS unit was on the blink, so I ended up riding with only the timer and heart rate to inform me of my effort.
Down the sliproad and onto the course. I wished at this point that I knew what speed I was cruising at - it seemed fairly easy (despite pushing a very big gear) and I quickly raised my HR to respectable levels. The outward leg clearly benefitted from the stiff wind, which was something of a diagonal tailwind. A map of the E2/25 can be seen in my report on my previous outing on this course, the Lea Valley CC '25' on 10th April. I reached the turn in around 25 minutes, had a bit of interference from traffic at the turn, and set out on the return leg somewhat worried about how tough it would be.
In the event, the return leg was a fair bit easier, with some shelter from the wind provided by the hedgerow, particularly on the later section on the A14. At places the broken nature of the hedgerow made for very gusty and buffeting conditions. Overall, though, I didn't suffer particularly from rain - indeed the far end of the turn seemed bone dry.
As I got closer to the finish, I became increasingly optimistic that I might pull off a decent time. I was momentarily flummoxed by the cones up the finish sliproad as at first I couldn't see the timekeeper. I checked my computer as I crossed the line and figured I'd done 55:29 (confirmed later in the race HQ). This is 9 seconds faster than I did in the Lea Valley event, and this now becomes my fastest '25' since 2004, so my form continues to pick up.
More to the point, what a horrible day it was - not what one would expect from mid-June!
Results
Checking the BBC weather forecast before setting off with my North Bucks Road Club team mate Tony, I was a little worried. While the forecast was for white clouds and light showers, the wind was straight from the north and about 21-22mph. It should also be evident from the weather icon to the left that the BBC turned out to be rather economical with the truth!As we drove over to Newmarket, Tony and I got increasingly worried about the weather. The wind was certainly as forecast, the trees and foliage were bending alarmingly. More bothersome were the heavy showers that were cruising along. Some of the showers were really very heavy. Reaching Newmarket, we found the race HQ rather more easily that in the past (cf the API-Metrow event last summer) - it was in a modern and rather swanky leisure centre. We grabbed our numbers and waited for a particularly heavy shower to pass before going back to the car and driving over to a wide-verged lane near the start.
We sat in the car while more heavy showers came over. I got ready, but sat in the car. At some point Tony realised that he'd forgotten a crucial bit of kit - his skin suit! This gave him a pretty good excuse not to ride in vile conditions... I waited in the car until the rain eased, then rode over to the start. So - no warmup! I realised pretty quickly that my GPS unit was on the blink, so I ended up riding with only the timer and heart rate to inform me of my effort.
Down the sliproad and onto the course. I wished at this point that I knew what speed I was cruising at - it seemed fairly easy (despite pushing a very big gear) and I quickly raised my HR to respectable levels. The outward leg clearly benefitted from the stiff wind, which was something of a diagonal tailwind. A map of the E2/25 can be seen in my report on my previous outing on this course, the Lea Valley CC '25' on 10th April. I reached the turn in around 25 minutes, had a bit of interference from traffic at the turn, and set out on the return leg somewhat worried about how tough it would be.
In the event, the return leg was a fair bit easier, with some shelter from the wind provided by the hedgerow, particularly on the later section on the A14. At places the broken nature of the hedgerow made for very gusty and buffeting conditions. Overall, though, I didn't suffer particularly from rain - indeed the far end of the turn seemed bone dry.
As I got closer to the finish, I became increasingly optimistic that I might pull off a decent time. I was momentarily flummoxed by the cones up the finish sliproad as at first I couldn't see the timekeeper. I checked my computer as I crossed the line and figured I'd done 55:29 (confirmed later in the race HQ). This is 9 seconds faster than I did in the Lea Valley event, and this now becomes my fastest '25' since 2004, so my form continues to pick up.
More to the point, what a horrible day it was - not what one would expect from mid-June!
Results