3 x10+(1V)2up25 = BH

Pudding Man

An 'aperatif' a midweek '10' of 22:09 on Tuesday evening saw me 7 seconds shy of winner from promoting club Kevin Southan (Hinckley CRC) but 10 sec too good for Ian Ball (Zenith) on my 95.7" fixed but come the weekend the 'starter' proper without the (after work) rush to warm up I trounce Kevin by 6 seconds with a 21:34 in the Leicester Forest '10' on the same setup but the A46 (Six Hills) is faster than the bumpy B road between Wolvey Heath and Meridian Park at Lutterworth and even though there was a stiff cross wind  my 11:16/10:18 splits good enough for 8th pipping Andrew Green (Lutterworth) by a second and Andy Eagers (Derby Mercury) by 38. With four inside 21 min and winner Matt Bottrill (i-ride) breaking the course record with 19:37 and looking like a contender for the BTTC in Northamptonshire this coming weekend.

Sunday's 'main course', the Team Swift (Charity) '10' on the uber fast V718 along the A63 on the Humber estuary, if this had been at 7am in the morning when I left the house then who knows? But as it was by the time I got out the car a stiff breeze had put pay to most of the 334 riders (3 events) who descended on the course in the hope of PBs and more. There were some fast times of course, my 9:43 first leg looked good but let down overcooking on the return 11:07 for a final 20:50 good enough for 36th and some way short of what I'd wanted from the day. A minute slow (cooking) the general consensus so Michael Hutchinsons (In-gear) would be happy with his winning 18:38  as it gave him just under a minute over 2nd Rob Pears (Bath CC) Steve Whitwick (UTAG) 3rd another second back

My use of gears pushed my margin over Ian Ball out to nearly 45 sec so I cannot have been slouching  and Andy Green slipped to 16 sec behind but Eagers pulling himself up by his proverbial bootstraps and closing the gap with the same  21:06 winning the >22min event

I like to think of myself as a bit of a pudding man so the 'dessert' always eagerly anticipated on this occasion the Bank Holiday Coalville Wheelers 2 up '25' with Mark 'Tri' White (Bike Science), after two days of ride-stretch-drive-warmup-race-warmdown-drive-sleep-drive-warmup-race-warmdown-drive-sleep edges getting a bit frayed so early/cold/wet/windy not appreciated for what should be a bit 'o' light relief and we miss our start because Mark's bladder goes on strike as we warm up and then he has perform bicycle ballet taking off his gilet as we descend to Long Watton at 30mph, despite this we manage a 10:25 split for the first 5m but heading into the wind his legs go on strike and this put pay to our race but in his defence he has just placed 4th in the National team Triathlon the previous day and I think I would go on strike as well. We finished the race in 1:02:25 so the minute late start did not seem like a penalty more like a service charge
Next week  BDCA '100' ( BBAR) + BTTC TT