I decided to opt for a Saturday afternoon in South Wales rather than Sunday morning in Farnham. It's a long way to go but I really don't like getting up early on Sunday any more (I think the 5:00 starts on the no longer used A34 courses finished me off some years ago). Having said that, though, I am thinking about riding the Eastern Counties 12hr which has a 5:00 start - but that's a bit different!
Anyway I was back on the R25/7 Usk-Monmouth course in much warmer but windier conditions than my ride a few weeks ago. The wind was a cross wind very similar to when I recorded a PB last season so I was hopeful of a reasonable ride and decided to go for it. In the event the conditions meant an even paced ride on the way out with a lot of 26mph stuff but more variation on the way back down to 20mph up one of the drags and 30mph down the other side (and these are long drags). The result was a season's best of 58:27 which was respectable, but I still don't think I was firing on all four (evidence of this was the fact that Mr Woodburn beat me ). Still, I'll be having another bash on this course in a few weeks time.