'Out of the Blue' [Re-run BDCA 50 (25)]

How do those riders manage to do fast times early in the season? While the rest of us are packing in the miles and going slow some are turning out 20 minute '10's and 52 minute '25's. I never seem to get going until the tail end of the season and I started racing in March! But I never seem to have any speed 'early doors' as it were, It takes months of training and racing to hone my performance but by this time of year I've got my act together and raring to go when there are hardly any events to ride. After my top '100' a few weeks back I pinching Roger Hammond's Club Record for 25 miles in the BDCA '25' on Saturday afternoon, the event was supposed to be a 50 mile time trial but road works on the A50 meant this was no longer feasible so the event was reduced to a '25' this after it had been cancelled the first time because of the weather on 8th August. This was excellent news for me as quite a few riders were bound not to turn up as a '50' mid season looks attractive but at the end of September is not everybody's cup of tea
Looking at my '25' PB of 56.30 (26.55 mph) you would not have put the current record of 51.52 (28.92 mph from 1996) within my grasp but I had got within a minute of it last year in an event (also on the A50) which was deemed 'outside the rules' because the start and finish had to be moved (further than 2.5 miles apparently!) because of roadworks at short notice. Also (slightly apologetically) I now have a '50' and '100' time faster than my '25' I just don't ride that many and all the ones I do ride seem to be on hard days (or I puncture).
No such worries on Saturday, early fog burned of to reveal one of the most beautiful days of the year and as I sat at home watching the World's women's road race from Varese Italy unfurl, I had to bid farewell to Nicole and Emma and Sharon to make the start at 3.30. I went to sign on to find the event had been commuted and I along with several others were not best pleased as we had prepared for a '50'. There was nothing we could do the race was already on so I made the token gesture of removing my second bottle cage and waved goodbye to my distance aspirations for the year. I sat in the sun waiting for my time to go to the line, I had done an hour in the morning with a few hard efforts I knew I wanted to start fast but the prospect of a '25' meant an even more urgent beginning to my effort. When I got to the timekeeper the wind had dropped and the news from the early starters was tantalisingly promising.
I have Marina Bloom (Rugby CC) a minute infront, no slouch the last time we met I was throwing up at the side of the road in the 12 hour and we spent an hour in each others company as I suffered the worst of my half day misery. I had caught her in the first four miles as my pulse topped 160 and my speed over 30mph, I had to keep this up for the duration and the outward leg proved the tougher of the two with slight crosswind from the South. I was 15 seconds down on my target (5 min) man Charles Taylor (S Pennine RC) and I could see scratch man Barry Charlton 'on a bit of a charge' over half a minute up six minutes behind.
The second half was a blinder, my speed hardly dropped below 32mph as I engaged top and it stayed there (56 x 11) on the shorter return. I had caught my 2 and 3 minute men having a private battle closely followed by Marina's husband 5 minutes infront of her and a friend Paul Austin (Retford & Dist. Whs.) on his road bike because of his bad back (he thought he was riding a '50') I gave him a big shout as I passed ( he almost fell off his bike he told me later)
I was pushing all the way to the line and knew It would be close to the record (computer gone again!) but my final time of 50.46 (29.55 mph) was staggering, I coughed all the way back to the car, a 5 minute 44 second improvement a big chunk to take off in one go (more than I'd taken off my '100' time). Charlton ran out the winner 4th fastest of the year 49.14 (30.47 mph) Scott Povey (Shirley RC) already a 50 min man this year tantalisingly close to a sub 50 ride in 2nd spot 50.04 [ he came closer Last Sunday with 50.02 in the Port Talbot '25' while 'The Hutch' was doing a season's best 46.27 (32.29 mph)] and Taylor third 50.31 I'd managed to hold him on the way back. Marina best lady with 57.30 My time puts me in The top 15 fastest riders of the year.
So sorry Roger records are there to be broken and I had several attempts to crack the '10' in the season and while I set a PB I knew I would not get close again this year. And all this came out of the blue on a day when I thought I'd be riding an end of season event of no consequence, it had been brought to my attention that although this event was before the end of the month it was not a BBAR qualifier but I hope It's ratified as a proper 'Open' as there were quite a few PB's on the day for those that turned up.
Interesting to note my stats. for the event pretty much the same as last weeks '50' Av. HR 155 Max HR 165 but rpm 88 as opposed to a paltry 82 last week so I'm not as much of a grinder as I thought. On the way home Alan phoned to say Nicole had won the World Championship - Perfect day!