Evening 10 #3 Report

I had spent the whole day looking skywards, sucking in my cheeks, watching the weather reports and debating whether we would run this event or not. All the weather posts seemed to suggest that the rain would stop over the afternoon and early evening and with what rain there was being the very light and annoying variety, rather than the heavy and dangerous type, it seemed that we would be tting after all.

That said, as we stood around in the Inholms carpark, still looking skywards, it seemed to get particularly gloomy and there seemed little appetite to get out onto the A24 and actually race. I fear that if there had been a nearby open pub garden or cake shop, we would have decanted there, but without those options available to us, it seemed that the only thing we could do was stick a number on our bums and go race.

It turned out it was actually a pretty good night. If it had been a few degrees warmer it would have been perfect, but there was no wind to speak of and this helped a few members to some pbs, as well as a clutch of fast times generally. The road was still a bit damp which made the top roundabout a little skiddy, but other than this conditions were in our favour. Marcus actually made it out of the carpark and to the start line this time and he was rewarded with an age related record of 22:29. Simon Trehearn also earned himself a pb in 23:24, which was a great performance after a hard Bank Holiday weekend of racing, taking part in the 100TT and the Thames Turbo Triathlon the following day. Russell had another strong performance, rounding out the top three with a time of 23:34, only 2 seconds in front of David Watt, another of our 100m TT competitors from the weekend. I was cockahoop to pb with a time of 23:45 yet that was only good enough for 5th place, and with Stuart not starting! It's great to see it so tight at the top with 4 riders only separated by a handful of seconds.

Jake Dodd again took the ladies race with 26:56 and Deborah Hurst in second in 31:03. In third place, Sam Pickup took a massive pb to finish in 31:29 and also take maximum points in the handicap event, ahead of Ken Williams and Ann Bath, who also took an age related record.

The next event is the Club Championships, so ensure that you get your entries in by next Thursday. Let's see if we can get a full field out for this one. Jake said something about cake so if that doesn't entice you out I don't know what will. I would also like to try to get a photograph of us all before the event. Details to follow.

Ride safe,  Alex