Dear all no pictures my fingers were frozen. Frank has already emailed the results. A brilliant ride Dave & a PB. Wow, in those conditions well done! Please permit me to say it was never going to be my day but on the penultimate final lap Deb was so incredibly encouraging to me by saying Mike you can do it and indeed I nearly did! At the final feed stop I was going quite well and thanks to Ken & Philip for being there to support. I decided to stop and hope that my final choc bar was waiting for me but Jake had already moved on. So I set off again very cold but determined to finish.
Though miserable I knew I could finish but I can only assume that by riding through the grit to stop and talk to Ken & Philip, I picked up a very tiny shard of steel. At the flyover further down I felt a flat and carried on for some time bottoming my rim. I stopped, pumped up the rear tyre but within a few yards it was flat again. I had a tube but my hands were so cold I could hardly change gear, so regrettably I packed, knowing that I could have finished! My clock stopped at 92.14 miles, 5hrs.05.21 and 18.1mph. It was a painful experience but I least I did not suffer Hypothermia like Peter Horsfield from Redmon who at one stage passed me only to be overtaken by me when I was relatively flying and he was clearly suffering.
I wish to express my sincere thanks to Jake for her commitment to support all KPRC riders and arrange the feed bottles you really were a star on the day. Thanks also to Ken for helping, I don't know how you managed to suffer that cold in your circumstances, you are a star and a credit to our club. Philip you were also a brick, thanks fore your support!
I would also like to thank Ray for turning out to support us all, you are undoubtedly the Champion of our club and a driving force to us all especially me.
Finally suffice to say Dave you nearly beat my PB of 4hr. 13min on my in 1963 on an old iron bike with 10 speed and no aero bars etc and that was at the age of 22 when I first met Barbara, sadly she was not interested in cycling and so in 1964 I stopped cycling for 23 years until Tim arrived.
At this juncture I cannot see me riding the ECCA 12 hr.
Finaly
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