Easter Racing - Pt 1.

After reading those last few reports, Does anybody in the SWRC ride anywhere close to SW London? Or are we all off around the country or Europe doing our thing! Anyway bit of an update on the Midlands (and the North) racing scene, last week I had my first back to back weekend of racing, on the Saturday I rode the Ashfield RC 2 Up '25' on the testing Griffydam course (the most windswept place in the windswept county)If I tell you that our Av. Sp. for the first five miles was above 33mph then you can imagine what the second half of this two lap course was like. My (usual) partner Mark is a whippet and offered no cover so we plugged away as the flags on the new housing estate near EMA and Castle Donnington were being shredded, we were just on 25mph as we went past the timekeeper (for the first time) and then from the aptly named Top road the flume ride began again as we touched 40mph on the twisty roads. Mark was beginning to suffer by now and I had to slow a bit for him on the second lap but we still came in under the hour in 59.54 for 7th place. Mark Lovatt(Planet X) and Mike Cummins (Raleigh) won it with 55.48 although D. Otter and Marc Mallinder the first Club team (Rutland CC) in 2nd spot over a minute down 56.56.
On the Sunday the Melton Olympic Hilly '20.5' solo this time and as I go back through my racing diary I'm sure I've ridden this recently but I have to go back to2006 when I was outside the hour (with a punture mind) must have put me off! As it was I managed 51.59 for 11th a mere 5 minutes behind Matt Bottrill (De Rosa) 46.51, I still caught my 3 minute men and beat Mark by 4 minutes, to be fair Mark was beginning to suffer by now, two night shifts as a fireman catching up with him.
Over the Easter weekend I had two races but on the Friday and Monday to give my body a bit of a chance to recover (from all that chocolate!), early season TT's are a bit tough on the body, you have to get used to the position not assumed since you last raced and the cold and wind are all tougher at this time of year. To be fair we have been blessed with some nice weather for a change, this time last year it was snow and ice so things are looking up for the summer, a later Easter always makes a difference, Easter was my first racing last year.