Preparing my bike the evening before the event was quite alarming. Several issues: a locked pedal that required considerable grease injection before it would turn; A rather iffy job of cabling the front mech (presumably dating from the pre-race tinkering before the Duo last year); and a severely rusted chain (presumably I didn’t lubricate it well enough after cleaning up the bike on January 1st). However, all quite easily remedied on a beautiful sunny and warm spring evening.
Oh how things changed overnight. The day of our “Come and try it” 10 mile time trial on the Astwood circuit was cold and blighted by a strong northerly wind. And I nearly didn't make it to the start owing to a black cat with suicidal tendencies that dived under my front wheel on the way up to the race! We'd decided to revise the Astwood course for this event: the revision meant the start was close to the BikeBus cafe - convenient for refuelling after the event, plus it offered some shelter from the elements. The downside was that the start point was fully exposed to the chilly north wind - I suspect I wasn't alone in shivering as I set off.
This wasn't the first time I'd raced on the Astwood circuit with a start point that differs from that normally used by NBRC, as TeamMK have used a further variant. But our new variant has the climb to Astwood rather soon after the start. personally, I prefer to get that over and done with as soon as possible. Unfortunately it was made a little less pleasant by the cold head wind up the hill. I could see my minute man in the yellow and blue Equipe Velo strip - he didn't seem that far ahead!
As I turned left into Astwood High Street, I was annoyed to see a car backing out into the road. I eased back slightly and followed it to the junction with the A422, where it stopped. And waited. And waited some more. I unclipped and put my foot on the tarmac. And still it waited. After what seemed an eternity, the driver finally drove out onto the A422, leaving me somewhat cross - not helped by my club mates Graham and Dave who informed me it had cost me at least 30secs (actually probably a fair bit less!)...
Out on the main road I clipped back in and set off. The wind, though cold and slowing me down, wasn't so bad as to make steering difficult. It didn't seem to offer much assistance as I rode off to turn at Chicheley - once round onto the backroads to North Crawley, there were some really quite quick spells. I motored on back to the finish, which is now interestingly placed just after a small dip in the road. I finished in 3rd place and 1st on vets standard, with a long 24 (see results below).
Later in the day, I recabled the front mech, so all is now fine with the P3.
Pos
No
Name
Club
Time
Cat
Vets Std
.+ / -
Vets Std
1
20
Richard Wood
Arbis/Colbert Cycles RT
24.10
S
2
11
Simon Moss
Equipe Velo
24.27
V41
26.04
.+ 1.37
2
3
12
Robert Saunders
NBRC
24.57
V55
27.09
.+ 2.12
1
4
15
Glenn Tearle
TeamMK
25.04
V49
26.41
.+ 1.37
2
5
13
Jason Lee
TeamMK
25.33
V46
26.27
.+ 0.54
4
6
10
John Buchanan
Team Corley Cycles
25.38
V45
26.23
.+ 0.45
5
7
1
Mick Atkinson
TeamMK
25.54
V41
26.04
.+ 0.10
8
8
9
Leigh Smith
Alpha Road Club
25.58
S
9
4
Andy Wickham
NBRC
26.03
V44
26.18
.+ 0.15
7
10
17
Geoff Hicks
Beds Roads CC
26.09
S
11
14
Andy Smith
TeamMK
26.50
V57
27.20
.+ 0.30
6
12
21
Dave Goodhew
NBRC
27.41
V41
26.04
.- 1.37
9
13
8
Phill Elvidge
TeamMK
28.24
V41
26.04
.- 2.20
12
14
2
Ian Stokes
45 Road Club
29.19
V55
27.09
.- 2.10
11
"
16
Andy Sharpe
Unattached
29.19
S
16
19
Adriana Borowska
NBRC
29.31
SL
17
5
Wayne Thomas
NBRC
29.37
V63
27.59
.- 1.38
10
18
18
Darren Carter-Maulden
Ampthill Velo
30.37
V42
26.09
.- 4.28
14
19
7
Luke Daniells
NBRC
30.38
V42
26.09
.- 4.29
15
20
6
Matt Holland
Team Corley Cycles
31.24
S
21
23
Alexandra Knowles
TeamMK
31.33
LV50
28.53
.- 2.40
13
22
3
Nicole Tur
Ampthill Velo
32.45
LV40
28.02
.- 4.43
16
DNF
22
Finn Hanson
TeamMK
44.44
V50
26.45
Time Keepers:- Stephanie Cousins & Tony Farmborough NBRC
Pusher Off & Course Marshal :- Bryan Scarborough NBRC
