Back to Back - Back to Black

Another tedious weekend of high winds and driving rain and hail only tempered by the fact that it was from the mild South West rather than the bone jarring North East, I'd had a recovery week in anticipation of a hard back to back events but these are compounded by atrocious weather conditions and I headed out to the Swift '50' on the A1 out near Tuxford. I had the chance to drive down the course and thought the event might be cancelled as there was allot of spray from the heavy and frequent showers but eventually the first riders came along.
Local Retford resident Paul Austin was standing outside the HQ when he should have been on the road saying he "didn't fancy it" and another 30 were of the same opinion from a nearly full field. I determined not to make it too painful after last week as this race had a near 25 mile pull into the wind on the outbound leg so I kept my gears down and tried to keep my revs up in the mid 80's, I'd forgotten to put a magnet on my front wheel so I had no computer which as it turned out I did not get too worried about my slow progress to the turn. I was about level with my 10 minute man Paul Dring (Echelon) although the new turn at Gonnerby Moore made that difficult to judge with the wind and two roundabouts to negotiate just as another dose of stinging rain deluged the A1.
The return was an altogether more civilised affair and I was able to get a bit more into my stride as I passed through the wind tunnel which had seen my speed drop dramatically at Long Bennington on the way out and then Newark a bit of a climb but much easier with a bit of a tail wind. For the second week in a row I was caught, last week Marc Mullender (Walsall RCC) for a minute and here a week later by Anthony Nash (Scunthorpe Poly) for two minutes, a fast local short distance man stepping up to fifty miles (once in a blue moon he told me later) it's all very well starting in a fast slot you have to be able to walk the walk and in the last couple of weeks I'd been found wanting but on both occasions by classy talent (I comforted myself)
Nash and I found ourselves in a bit of a tussle as we passed and re-passed each other on the way to the finish, I would peg him back on the drags and he would press his advantage on the faster parts as I kept to my high revving target, he was often out the saddle as he urged his bike forward with a swaying torso and pounding legs, I was able to pull away at the tough finish as we mopped up several infront I had to be careful not to take pace as I was the caught rider, at the finish we compared rides and I apologised If I had interfered with his 'effort' but he had done enough for 4th on the day with 1.52.27. Winner was Andy Wilkinson (Port Sunlight Whs) 1.48.14 from Joel Wainman 1.49.08 and Carl Ruebotham 1.50.29 both from the promoting club, I'd beaten Dring by a mere 3 seconds for 8th place.
I did not get home untill after 8pm and out the door again at 8 the next morning after a brief leg rub and sleep for the Stratford CC round of the LVRC Percy Stallard National series at Shipton-on-Stour. Clouds looked ominous once again and Dave Worsfold and I sat in the changing room layering on waterproof clothing until we looked like the Sunday joint ready for the oven.

Leading the bunch in the wet - Some take it more cautious than others

The A and B age groups raced together and sure enough as we rolled away the heavens opened and the bunch was soon soaked through, I was one of the few with winter overshoes (still in my kitbag) but there was no stripping off arm warmers and gilets as the race wore on they stayed for the duration as the rain lashed down for the first 3 of this 5 lap (75 mile!) race. I think a combination of the distance (several said it was there longest race ever) the rain and the strong winds (still) made the race an unusual one, two riders got away in the first mile and stayed away for the duration, no matter what people tried the race never got going it just spurted to life every now and again like a mis fireing engine and we see-sawed our way through the race leaving the escaped duo to a maximum lead of 2 minutes. But you had to give them their due, I would not have wanted to stay out front for over 70 miles

Final Gallup for the finish - I came past most of these riders by the line apart from the one in red, I had no idea how far infront of the rest of the bunch in the distance

I took it easy for the first hour to let my legs recover from yesterday, I kept well up on the hills but I have to say my legs were OK and keeping away from the big gears had saved my legs. I had a few efforts to get away or get in a working group but they all came to nothing and then on the last lap it was just a waiting game for the finishing sprint up the hill which I coped with but you know I'm no good I'm just not fleet enough (or light enough!) to get up the front in this sort of finish made for the Judges and the bunch was well spread out. No cramp either, if it was going to happen it would on a day like today. As it turned out we averaged over 22mph to finish in 3 1/4 hours on what is a pretty tough course with lots of twists and turns, the results (& some pics) can be found on the LVRC website

Dirt Sir!

NB Just looked at the result and found I was placed 6th in the B race (12th o/a and both the escapees were 'A' riders Geoff Giddings (Raleigh RT) winner and Dave Kirby (Coventry CC) 2nd so we were sprinting for the outright win in the 'B' race. Andy Webb (Kenilworth Whs.) winning the bunch sprint from Roy Sumner 'A' (Port Sunlight Whs - second one to beat me this w/e) Jon Stephenson 'B' (Endura) 2nd and Graham Payne 'B'(Whitfield RT) 3rd