NBRC Club TT (Beachampton 2 x 5 miles) 16/3/24

After all the recent dreary and wet weather, I was pleased to have a lovely spring day to ride over to Beachampton (a bit over 20 miles each way) for this club time trial, though there were many puddles and other mucky sections on the course.

Four riders turned out, including the very youthful Oscar who rode one lap of the course on his mountain bike and accompanied by his dad following close behind (and offering encouragement). The rest of us did two laps on road bikes (the event wasn't open to TT bikes).

Dick did the signage and timekeeping.

Off number 1, I was instantly in the red as the course rises fairly steeply. From then it was alternating climbs and descents so I was alternating between dipping into the red and recuperating on the descents. James came zooming past me about halfway round the first lap. Completing the first lap, I took the gravelly corner into the second lap fairly cautiously before embarking on another lap. Overall, sections of the course remain pretty broken up, and there was a fair bit of wet and muddy road out there.

Dick noted the difference in lap times: Robert was reasonably consistent given that the second lap is ever so slightly longer and has a gravelly corner just after completing the first lap. James started like a bat out of hell, catching Robert about halfway round the first lap, but then faded on his second lap. Maybe he needed a rider to chase down! Craig, in his first NBRC club event, was clearly holding something back, as he went faster in his second lap.

Many thanks to all who turned out, and especially well done to Oscar.

The spring like weather persisted through my ride home - lambs in the fields, daffodils in the verges, clouds scudding across blue skies. Hopefully a sign that the weather will change from the persistent wet conditions we seem to have had for months now.