Southern Counties 100

[Jon H]

Four and a half ACC riders were in the SCCU 100 mile TT yesterday, in order of starting:
2 Lisa Scarlett (2nd claim)
10 Robert Royle-Evatt
28 Mike Ingram
36 Me
55 Richard Viney

If you discount the abandoned Sussex CA 100 a few weeks ago, in which I did 35 miles in the rain and wind before packing, this was my first 100 TT since 2003. Started off at a fairly steady pace, which with hindsight I think was a bit too steady. Went through 25 miles in around 1:06. By 30 miles I starting to need a pee and spent the next few miles deciding whether I needed to stop or not. By 38 miles by bladder was putting up a convincing arguement, so nipped into a field gateway to do the necessary. While I was there two riders passed me; the eventual winner Stewart Jardine (46) and 47. I caught Lisa at about 54 miles and shouted some encouragement. Just afterwards I heard a strange noise from my back wheel shortly followed by a strange feeling. Thought I'd punctured so I started coasting to a stop, then the rear wheel locked up which brought me to a rather more rapid stop. Looked down and I first thought that the tub had come off and wrapped itself round the chainstay, then discovered it was actually my spare tub which had fallen out of its place under my saddle and into the rear wheel. As I was untangling this mess Lisa passed me and asked if I was OK. Everything seemed to still work, so I stuffed the tub down the back of my skinsuit, remounted and carried on. This course is the only one I know off which has traffic lights, and I got caught at red for what seemed like an eternity but was probably 20 seconds. The next part of the course has two out and back doglegs, and I could see Mike ahead of me and Richard getting fairly close behind me on each of these. I caught Mike at about 80 miles, but Richard was in the process of blowing up after a fast start, so he didn't manage to catch me. Tamar was out around the course and when I smiled and waved she replied that I looked too happy. I managed a pretty consistent pace all the way round, finished without blowing up and did a PB by 5 minutes which was OK but should have been more really.

Results:
Rob 4:16:51
Rich 4:17:29
Me 4:29:32
Mike 4:43:37 (first 100)
Lisa, sorry, forgot to write it down.

Winner Stewart Jardine, 3:58:58, only rider under 4 hours.

[Mike I]

I think Rob's time was a pb and, by virtue of being our first attempts at the distance, so were Lisa's and mine.

The last 10 miles or so hurt so much I was sure I would never do that again and even threatened to put all my bikes on e-Bay! I'm feeling better now though and even beginning to work out how to improve next time - a better planned feeding regime might help.

Big thanks to Joyce, Tamar and Linda, who kept popping up around the course and thrusting bottles at me.