Team Salesengine '10' 4/4/15

This event was my first open solo event of 2015, and was an afternoon '10' held on the F2D/10, a course based on the A428, turning at the junction with the Madingley Road into Cambridge. The weather was pretty cold, with a bit of a stiff crosswind that may have provided a bit of assistance (but not much) on the outward leg. The event also revealed a bit of an issue with the Kask aero hat! I went out to "warm up" near the start, but really only succeeded in getting quite cold! The start is down a road running alongside the A428 dual carriageway, so that provides a useful stretch of road to ride up an down.  The start itself is by a large water tower, and it's only a short distance to the roundabout where we join the sliproad to the A428 - not much time to get up to speed before slowing to take a sharp left. I went off down the sliproad pretty briskly, and just before joining the A428 proper, I looked over my right shoulder to check out the traffic situation. At this point my visor (attached with small magnets) caught the wind and flipped straight off the helmet. This was a bit annoying - I reckoned replacement visors come particularly cheap (an eyewatering £43.99 at Wiggle!!!) and for the rest of the race, my thoughts kept returning to the fate of the visor! Anyway, there was no way I was going to stop to retrieve it and I pressed on. My hands were feeling a little chilly, but apart from that I didn't feel particularly cold once I was riding. The road is a pretty nice dual carriageway course that undulates a bit, so my speed (the only numbers I could read on my Garmin) did fluctuate a bit. The turn is a bit fiddly, but at least my memory of it from previous rides was accurate - a sliproad takes you off the dual carriageway, then eventually to a roundabout that you have to ride all the way round to get to the correct exit to return to the A428. Riding back down to the dual carriageway builds up a fair bit of speed, but fairly soon after, I found myself going inexplicably slowly - presumably a combination of a slight gradient and the headwind. Not much to report on the return leg, other than I got slightly stalled by traffic at the Cambourne junction. But still that won't have represented much of a dent to my time! The it was back to the HQ to see some times, eat cake etc. I finished in 31st place with 22:44, which was a bit quicker than last year's 22:54 (and in similar conditons). Tony was 36th with 23:00. The winner was Jason Boutell with a cracking ride of 19:57. Oh, and after the event, we went off in search of my errant visor. We found it apparently undamaged sitting on its edge in the hard shoulder of the sliproad. So a happy ending, though I'll have to figure out a better way of attaching it in future. [caption id="attachment_3418" align="alignnone" width="1000"]Near the turn, minus visor Near the turn, minus visor (Photo: Davey Jones)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3419" align="alignnone" width="640"]NBRCRobS083 Rear view showing the number pocket (Photo: Davey Jones)[/caption] Garmin Trace (no power meter used) Top 36 places (full result here):
Position Rider Club/Team Min Sec
1 Jason Bouttell Team Velovelocity.co.uk 19 57
2 David McGaw Cambridge CC 20 04
2 Justin Layne CC Ashwell 20 04
4 Mark Arnold CC Desiragear 20 25
5 Simon Norman Arbis-Colbert Cycles RT 20 27
6 Luke Hattersley St Ives CC 20 33
7 Daniel Northover Finsbury Park CC 20 36
8 Mick Hodson St Ives CC 20 43
9 Tom Trimble CC Ashwell 20 44
10 George Fox Kingscliffe Flyers 20 45
11 Daniel Bloy Team Velovelocity.co.uk 20 50
12 Carl Whitwell St Ives CC 21 01
13 Phil Melling 45 RC 21 03
14 Stu Wright Carnac Planet X 21 20
15 Richard Hancock St Neots CC 21 22
16 Jason Green Bedfordshire Road CC 21 26
17 Mathew Eley Ely & District CC 21 27
18 Gavin Moore Team Velovelocity.co.uk 21 29
19 John Mulvey Cambridge University CC 21 41
20 Robert Watson Newmarket Cycling & Triathlon Club 21 50
21 Martin Reynolds Cambridge CC 21 55
22 Ryan Morley Fibrax-Wrexham RC 22 10
23 Michael Martin CC Ashwell 22 14
23 Neil Wood Dig Deep Coaching - SCU 22 14
25 Gavin Ashfield Hitchin Nomads CC 22 15
26 Mark Ellis Team Milton Keynes 22 26
27 Adrian Taverna St Neots CC 22 32
28 Paul Southern 45 RC 22 33
29 Franz Fuerst Cambridge CC 22 34
30 Robert Golding Ely & District CC 22 40
31 Robert Saunders North Bucks RC 22 44
32 Stuart Jones Kettering CC 22 46
33 Chris Pearce CC Ashwell 22 47
34 Tom Sykes Ely & District CC 22 51
35 Tim Childs Westerley CC 22 52
36 Tony Parks North Bucks RC 23 00