A nice jovial chat at the start before my turn and then off down the road. I've had good form lately but haven't done a 25 for a while, at a medium to long shot I was hoping for an hour ride. My PB is just 11 seconds shy but was on a slightly faster course what seems like an age ago now but is only really a few months, but I struggled to get my legs going early on. I was off pace for the hour but still going fairly well, certainly better than normal on this course. I've ridden it plenty but all the roundabouts seem to upset my rhythm and flow a bit, even though they're nearly all straight on and you don't have to ease off for them.
Heading up to Tollgate I saw PVT coming the other way,
it's a bit of a drag but only about a mile and he'd started 25 minutes ahead of me. I guessed at a puncture and was right, but whereas I'd assumed he'd stopped to change a tub he'd called home (literally round the corner from where his tub went bang) for a spare wheel 
. I'm amazed Ruth didn't tell him where to put his wheel 
.After 10 miles and bang, not a puncture but my legs woke up and felt great
. I was now shooting along nicely and reeling people in. Over the whole race I was caught by a couple of flyers but caught 4 or 5 myself in the second half of the race.Shifting along nicely, a quick "Hello Sir" to Adrian on the Great Daux roundabout and off up to Southwater. It was on this leg that I was caught by the second rider but I was going well and pushed on. Round the turn and checked my watch, although I wasn't going to get the hour I'd picked up a bit of time lost early on so was still going to get a course PB.
Over the line and a bit disappointed to have had slightly iffy legs for the first 10 miles as I think I'd have got close to the hour if they'd been as good as later from the start, but can't really be upset with 1.01 and a course PB. Definite improvements made this season and performing with more consistency too. In an ideal World I'd have a couple of 25s left to do and hopefully crack the hour this season, but I'm away and will miss races so this was my final proper solo TT of the year. President's 10 next week and think I'll go old skool for that on fixed, and then the torture of the hill climb weekend. Next year.
Results:
Robert Royle-Evatt 59-58
Paul Tunnell 1.22.41
Andrew Green 1.01.22
George Brent 59.08
Jon Hemming 1.00.49
Christine Costiff 1.10.12
Very pleased for my namesake from Old Ports whose been trying to crack the hour for the last two seasons, I thought he'd done it a couple of times earlier this year but apparently not. He did today in style with a 59.07 well done to the other AG.
