Kent CA 12 Hour -

I've had to sit down and write some unedifying accounts of races in the last season and I'm dreading how to tackle this one bearing in mind, it did not go as planned or give me a satisfactory outcome beyond the fact that I finished and in doing so I now have a complete set of distances for this years BBAR. My distance 259.847 mile almost twenty miles short of my best and at least a mile per hour short of what I would have expected even in the worst outcome

Satisfaction is always going to be a comparative state so maybe I should wait a little longer to reflect or use some different criteria to judge my performance (this is what most people are suggesting when they console you on a bad ride), Did I overestimate my opportunity or the toughness of the challenge, there's always an element of this, when you are fit you might have a tendency to feel that it might be easy but it’s the result that matters. There is no doubt that I am in good condition, my recent ‘100’ prove that I am not far off my best but my result is not good enough to get me into the top echelon that I desire and that hurts
Breckland - Result that never was

There is also the fact that I was doing this event because the Breckland event was cancelled at 200m (8Hrs) and I have had to get used to the fact that my fitness and focus on that day had been ‘wasted’, ignoring all the reasons for this just extending my form for a few more weeks to ride another event with all the effort and time of another half day, not that I'd do anything different again given the opportunity - that's what it takes! But sitting here in the cold light with the result in my lap I am having difficulty seeing through to the sport, it all seems like some cruel joke at my expense

No matter that my distance would have won the event last year (six of the last ten years) on this tough and unremitting course down in the SE corner of the country.

Kent courses now that most DC roads are off limits bearing in mind the traffic levels in the South East are not known for their speed, you would say unfashionably slow, not since the 80's when Lloyd broke the '10' on the Q10/19 (A21)have they garnered national records, those have gone to the less populated regional roads. The Kent CA event has a reputation for being exposed and hilly being based around Romney Marshes and the hop growing area of inland roads from Tenderden to Ashford. I knew this and the results of recent years were similarly dauntingly slow but it was my only remaining opportunity and I had to make the best of it.
Brothers Alan and Phil had stepped up to the mark to be my helpers for the day and we went for a little ride to the HQ from our base in Headcorn to test the roads on a warm sunny Saturday evening. We were up at 4am it was cloudless but colder than of late and I hoped the wind would be less than of late. I'd ridden the team Swift '10' the previous weekend in unprecedented gales that saw me record a decent 21:30 on the new National Record course (17:56 by Hutch a month before) but even he only just scraped inside 30mph with 19:57 and my uneven splits of 9:04 (34mph) and 12:30 (24mph) tell the story of the day.
I was the fastest man in the field and as such all eyes were on me, but I was too concerned about, not getting lost on the initial route and settling down into a decent racing rhythm, I need not have worried about the course it was well signed and marshaled. Before the first hour was up I had some inkling that it was going to feel like a long twelve hours, the flat roads around the Marshes were exposed and the wind was getting up. I found myself fighting my way up the seafront at Camber Sands along the esplanade into a fierce Easterly which had me fighting to keep 'evens' when I should have been eking out my effort for the remains of the event, the first hour garnered 25 miles but it was obvious I could not sustain this attrition, I went through 50m in 2:4 (my Av. Sp. here already below the 200m mark in the Breckland event!) Two big laps inland followed and we could get away from the wind but this was replaced with a substantial amount of climbing on the rolling countryside, 100m came up in 4:14:40 and local Steve Berry (San Fairy Ann) was a clear leader in 4:4:43, there was a clutch of riders within a couple of minutes of my time Andy Sheppard 4:13:39 (GS Stella) Paul Holdsworth (Houndslow & Dist.) 4:14:56 local Andy Miles (VC Elan) 4:16:10 and Brian Walker (Swift) 4:19:25
The next 100 miles which should be a stabilising time of the race proved to be the most difficult, there were many agricultural vehicles, combine harvesters, balers and tractors, I had to nip around on the narrow and windy roads those less speedy sat behind on a fog of dust and straw. I caught Walker for 15 minutes at 150m there were two laps of the Woodchurch circuit with a steep climb and my bearing in my wheel exploded and I had to change onto my spare bike at 178m. Luckily I was close to my help but the bike felt awful to ride as you would expect after nearly 8 hours on one bike
All change - again!

There was a brief flat section with a crosswind but relief for me as I could settle myself down for a few minutes and get some rhythm into my racing but it was all too brief on these unremitting roads before it climbed up to Hamstreet and up again towards the finishing circuit. I could not continue on this bike as the saddle was giving me grief but the ‘boys’ had a puncture on the car and were temporarily delayed in getting to me so I had to continue on until they caught up, a second change and I had a bit of a sit down for a few minutes to take stock. I just needed it to be over and began to clock watch with more than three hours remaining; Berry caught my going as strongly ready to break the course record which has stood for fifteen years (Ian Silvester when the event was the National Championship)
Finished

My computer had not worked when transferred onto my spare so I had over 2 hours unaccounted for, but with the stops I cannot imagine how my distance could be more than 264 miles which would have been a disaster so to find that it was less than 260 was a blow to my moral and the death knell for this seasons BBAR. I could not have averaged more than evens for the last 4 hours on top of the 22.6mph up to my bike change where I was already 38 minutes behind my Breckland speed of 24.2mph, I have to go away and re evaluate my season but I do seem to have been plagued by incidents in nearly every event I have made a target for this season, this has left me bewildered and not a little depressed when I think of all the time and effort my team and I have put into getting it right o7ò



KCA 12 Hour Result Here