A bit of a mixed bag this weekend with all my racing crammed into a 12 hour period between finishing the Headnor Clarion '10' at 19:36:23 on Saturday evening on the A50 and starting the Hitchin Nomads '25' at 7:35 on the Sunday, a little matter of travelling 50 miles home/shower/eat and then travel a hundred miles to Bedford sleep/eat and get to the Tempsford HQ on the A1.
My ride on the Saturday was the stronger of the two events 21.23 for 4th place but only 3 seconds off being the runner up to Martin Gardiner (Team I Ride) out on his own in 20.48 The conditions were windy and I had to trade off the bigger gear as I was on a 'fixed' for a change, after riding around in 90" and deciding that anything bigger than on 102.5" would be impossible to keep going on the harder return. I was at the turn at 30mph but 20 seconds down on my minute man Mark Shardlow (Derby Mercury) the eventual 2nd placed rider but only by 3 seconds at the finish Martin Oaks (Go Sport) squeezed in the middle a second faster than me.
People do keep coming up to me at races and saying "Are you the rider that rode in such and such an event in the early 80's" Usually I have to admit that I am, If they are very large or at all angry looking I do say quickly "It could have been one of my brothers!" Alan tells me he has used this tactic successfully as well. On this Occasion it was Chris Hubbard (Leicester RC) the same age as me and Ex of De Laune CC
(although he has always lived in Leicestershire!) and Dave Lloyd's Competition record day on the Q10/19 (his club's promotion), he had done a long 21 on the day and today did a not too shabby 22.08 for 13th.
The Hitchen event was an 'Old Skool' for me and organiser Ian Cammish clocked me at the start "Oy! Power" I checked that nobody was around before going bright red with embarrassment (blame it on the leg rub getting in my eyes) "I can dine out on that name for years to come" said I in some sort of response, well there are a host of lesser nicknames that I could be called so for TT royalty to give me such a grand moniker is a fine thing indeed. King Cammish informed me he was going S*** and would
be DNS, I could do with some of his problems as he stuffed me for seven minutes in the Lea Valley '50' last week (maybe it was motivation!)
The sky was grim and the rain was falling, spotting but cold and wet, lots of other DNS's wary of the conditions and the course a rider had been killed on this road a few weeks ago and we are still coming to terms with what we do week in week out on potentially dangerous roads. No time to do a proper warm up after a bare five hours sleep just ride to the start and get going, legs pretty stiff but a bit of a tail wind to the first turn at Sandy (2.5m) but now a long twelve mile pull into the wind on my Non Aero 'Lloydy' bike, legs not getting better in the cold and the wind. Caught my minute man at half way but struggled to drop him (he was on fixed) eventual 2nd Gareth Rose (Icknield RC) 1.01.58 and a 29th Wheeler on an Aero bike for
two minutes. On the way back I saw a line of traffic behind a Police car and my heart sank at the prospect of another rider caught in an accident but as it turned out just the Police stopping the traffic (& the race) to get a crashed car out of a ditch, I had been the last rider to get through (the 29th Wheeler and Gavin Hinxman (Welland Valley)- my minute man gave a wave as I went by). I was a bit put off by the thought of another accident and should I stop? But I ploughed on to the finish as the rain fell harder, I had said to Cammish I would be disappointed with an outside the hour ride and I knew it would be close but as it turned out I was 14 seconds over. The ride 2 miles down the A1 to a crossing point at Sandy and back coincided with the heavens opening and I was soaked and freezing by the time I got back to the car. I got the story of the 'hold up' and felt much better that nobody was hurt, but it had messed up the tail end of the race, seven DNF's to add to the 40 DNS's only 27 finishers. I took the honours in the Old Skool and pleasing 7th on the Open which was won by Tony Parks (N Bucks RC) with 57.38 Gavin Hinxman eventual 3rd in the Old Skool with 1.08.52 after a 7-8 minute hold up
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