.I have done hardly any riding and zero training but had entered this as for some reason I always seem to. The course is around Oakwoodhill and Ockley and made up of a small loop and a big loop mainly around the lanes.
It's a horrible lumpy affair, no big hill but a seemingly never ending series of drags and rolls. Perfect for someone unfit
.The weather was crap yesterday, although by some miracle it stopped raining just before the start, so warm up consisted of sitting in the HQ. Forget the skinsuit I was in winter tights and boots!
The roads were covered in puddles with numerous flooded bits to splash through where the volume of rain had made little streams running across the width of the roads in places. Fortunately I had decided that today was all about just trying to do the first bit of training, so I was on my commuting bike with mudguards
.It was fairly grotty but not going too bad until 8 miles (apart from having to stop at a junction for a van) where a long drag just did it for me and the lack of fitness had me wishing the finish line would get closer.
A terrible 29.30 for me on this nagging course with Rob about 40 seconds faster than me having dug out his first race bike for the horrible conditions. Miraculously I wasn't caught by anyone, and although I thought I was a shoe-in for the lantern rouge there was quite a few slower with about a dozen >30m times.
Wouter Sybrandy won with a short 22, which gives you an idea of the course if a pro can't get under 22 minutes on it. He was the only one in the HQ with clear tan lines
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