Having entered the Andover 10 before I realised that the President's 10 was on the same day I ended up riding two events on the same day for the first time . It ended up being a strange day.
I didn't feel very good warming up for the President's 10 and if I'm honest I didn't ride full bore (particularly coming back into the wind) knowing I had another event in the afternoon. To top that I even managed to mistake an abandoned car for the finish and ended up freewheeling past the actual finish no doubt to the puzzlement of the time keepers (how many times have I ridden this course?).
Luckily I had a resonably late start (around 10 to 5) in the Andover event so I had some time to recover. The conditions were definitely better with a perfect temperature (around 21C) and lighter breeze blowing. As soon as I started warming up I felt much better than the morning and felt certain to go faster. I was expecting a harder outward leg with a fast return but in the event it was fairly even both ways. The slight downhill start gave me time to get into a good rhythm and by the time I got on the DC I felt really good. This time I was going full bore all the way round to finish with a season's best 22:22 . For the first time in a while this felt like racing should!