Sub 21 in the Lakes!

I did get to ride my first sub 21 minute 10 mile but it was the first ten miles of the North VTTA '50' between Cockermouth and Keswick on Sunday not the Barrow Central Wheelers '10' on Saturday. I could only manage 21.25 on a windswept A590, for 19th place(the course Jason MacIntyre managed 18.15 on a couple of weeks ago) Nik Bowdler won the event with a staggering 20.09 but when my Pulse Monitor went over 98% on the way back I eased off rather than burst every blood vestal in my forehead. I say ease off because that was the down wind section of the course and as me ol'dad used to say "You never gain time you only loose it" and on that day I'd lost plenty on the way out and doing myself some physical mischief on the way back getting my speed up was not going to save 30 seconds.
At least the weather was warm and (almost) sunny which was more than could be said for Sunday which dawned wet and miserable, but like i always say "If it didn't rain there wouldn't be any lakes there!" And when in the Lake District one expects to get a little wet, the deluge which accompanied the race was of Biblical proportion and with the accompanying wind I expected to see Charlton Heston on top of one of the many hill tops with a staff and a couple of tablets of stone. The mountains of the North Lakes that surround Bassenthwaite make this (usually) the most picturesque course in the country, but my vision was a blur of spray from the many veteran HGVs on a rally to Penrith and wind blowing in from the Irish Sea down the Solway Firth. There was an ultra fast start which saw me catch my minute man the 79 year old Dennis Milsom in under 4 miles and complete the first 10 in 20.35, I did 32mph+ one way and barely 22mph the other and ended up with a 1.57.07 for 4th place (1st Vet 40-45), Dennis who has seen some conditions in his time and knew better packed at half way!