The weather forecast for this event was pretty dire and led to quite a few riders not starting. As it turned out, the early starters got a dry ride, whereas us later starters had a pretty soggy time of it. The pretty cool and damp conditions kept my HR down (one might say dampened it).
The event was on the F1B/25, which runs from Tempsford to the Baldock interchange and back, and which is rather more severely undulating than the F1/25 (see the reports on the Verulam CC and Finsbury Park CC time trials). There was an irritating 9mph wind from the SE (according the the weather reports - but it felt stiffer), which made the outbound leg quite tough. More annoyingly, the rain had started by the time I reached the Sandy roundabout, and just got heavier as the race progressed. The motor traffic was on the whole not excessive, and kept a good distance, for which I was glad, given the conditions I was racing in.
The Biggleswade South roundabout has had a major makeover - extra lanes and a spanking new tarmac has been laid. Scorching across obviously greasy new tarmac in the rain seemed a bit risky, so I took this carefully. By the time I rounded the turn, the rain was absolutely throwing itself down. I felt quite sorry for the marshals having to stand out in the elements!
[caption id="attachment_3260" align="alignnone" width="474"]
Exiting the F1B/25 turn in heavy rain - Photo: Davey Jones[/caption]
The photo above is another fine one from Davey Jones, who commented
Actually, I was having a bit of trouble with the rain getting in my eyes! Despite the rain (which had my shoes squelching water out with every pedal revolution), the return leg was pretty quick. The F1B/25 turn is higher than the finish, so on the whole the return can be quite quick, assuming one can deal with the climbs. I finished with 58:06, which was quite a respectable time. My mate Tony finished with 58:01, though he’d been fannying around with his Garmin computer on the outward leg. Here are the top 20 finishers - 42 riders finished out of around 78 on the start sheet.I think I would close my eyes if I took a wet RAB at that angle!!
| Position | Name | Club | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Simon Norman | Bedfordshire Road CC | 00:53:39 |
| 2 | Dave Lazenby | Silverstone Cycle-Baines Racing | 00:54:29 |
| 3 | Jason Stuart | CC Ashwell | 00:56:00 |
| 4 | Carl Whitwell | St Ives CC | 00:56:02 |
| 5 | Neil Wood | Lichfield City CC | 00:56:29 |
| 6 | Mathilde Matthijsse | Bonito Squadra Corse | 00:57:01 |
| 7 | Richard Hutt | Harp RC | 00:57:16 |
| 8 | Nick Hitchens | Peterborough CC | 00:57:58 |
| 9 | Tony Parks | North Bucks RC | 00:58:01 |
| 10 | Robert Saunders | North Bucks RC | 00:58:05 |
| 11 | Tom Sykes | Ely & District CC | 00:58:15 |
| 12 | Ben Wilson | Hitchin Nomads CC | 00:58:22 |
| 13 | Geoff Bunyan | Bossard Whs | 00:58:50 |
| 14 | Peter Gell | Bedfordshire Road CC | 00:59:07 |
| 15 | Alan Crane | Chronos RT | 00:59:16 |
| 16 | Andrew Digby | Verulam CC | 00:59:16 |
| 17 | Ian Bashford | Old Portlians CC | 00:59:19 |
| 18 | Tom Sharpe | VC Norwich | 00:59:30 |
| 19 | Ian Markham | Chronos RT | 00:59:46 |
| 20 | Richard Moule | Bossard Whs | 01:00:02 |