Hounslow & District Wheelers 10 16/6

[Andrew G]

Lucy and I at Bentley for a very windy 10. Lifted the bike out the car and the wind caught the disc and nearly threw me across the car park . Discovered a punctured tub in my front wheel so Lucy kindly leant me her spare road wheel as my spare was a very deep PX82 which could have been a bit lively in these conditions.

Headwind out tailwind home, well riding in to a wall on the way out and fly back would be more accurate. The trip out was tough and felt like riding through treacle at times, the last mile or so to the turn was block wind and I went in to the red trying to avoid going backwards. Around the turn and it was 54x11 nearly the whole way back.

Bit of a funny race with half hellish slog and half sustaining high speeds without the effort.

24.12 for me which is very average for the course but think I was about a quarter of the way through the field so not too bad as I've only done one 10 this year and that was ages ago. Lucy did 26.47 and was 3rd woman. Wouter Sybrandy pipped Pete Tadros by a few seconds for the win, both with amazing in the conditions mid 20s.

[Lucyap]

I don't like WIND! Wind = nervous Lucy! And this one was very, very windy

Saw Andrew off, before deciding I couldn't put off a warm-up any longer (had to stop hiding in the car!) A few meters down the road and I was blasted by a gust of wind. Pulled over, and contemplated putting my bike back in the car. I don't think my nerves were helped by the comments I"d being hearing at HQ ...

Anyway I got myself to the start line, with rather tense shoulders and lots of swearing. Andrew had just finished as I got my 30 seconds count down, so he passed on some tips as I clipped in and did a last min panic. Got pushed off ... and immediately had a gusty wind wobble. Headed off down the road with hands braced and glued to the handle bars (thats not the aero bars bit of the bars, but the widest bit of the bars, whatever that bits called!) I'll admit that pretty much where my hands stayed, as every time I got on the aero bars I'd feel a gust hit the front wheel and I'd wobble, panic and start swearing again. I was feeling like a right idiot riding like this but the legs felt strong ... and I hadn't ended up in a hedge yet, so I pushed on.

After I'd wrested the bike round the turn roundabout things got easier, and I flew up the Col de Hen and Chicken, to finish in 26:47 ... and the thought "I'm still alive!!!!! Reasonably happy with my time, it certainly wasn't a pb day, and 1st and 2nd ladies were not too many seconds faster than me. But more importantly I felt pleased I hadn't quit!

[carl f]

Well done in that wind,shame as i bet its a fast course otherwise? was it blowing from the SW direction?, could have used that tailwind on thurs on the South downs way but instead rode into an easterly all the way from Winchester to Eastbourne, worse part was from Devils dyke to Eastbourne-relentless!

[Andrew G]

I think my words of winsdom for Lucy were simply "it's bloody hard out and you'll fly back"
[quote="carl f"]Well done in that wind,shame as i bet its a fast course otherwise? was it blowing from the SW direction?

[SteveD]

I didn't ride this one as I was down to ride a rerun of the Hampshire RC 10 on the Liss/Liphook course, the original event having been cancelled due to torrential rain back in May. As it happens the conditions were again attrocious with very stong winds and rain - even worse than the conditions at Bently when I drove through on the way to and from the event. I decided not to ride though 20 something brave souls did. I had to feel sorry for the organisers particularly as they had laid on a fantastic spread of cakes!