After a brief hiatus in my racing programme and having managed my first training ride in the last 12 months on Monday it was obviously time to start racing again.
Bourne Wheelers club 10 was on the Greatford course, a short ride from my front door, and with an early finish at work enabling me to get back to sunny Lincs from greyish Hampshire just in time to pump up my tyres and go I found myself on the start line with the familiar 5, 4, 3, 2 ...
A truly sporting course where I saw at most half a dozen vehicles during the race (and 1 of those belonged to a marshall) and a circular route so that you could really appreciate the unique qualities of fenland wind (how can you always be cycling into a headwind when changing direction through 360 degrees?) I finally managed to limp home in the cracking time of 29.56 Thoroughly enjoyed myself and off out for my second training ride of the year this evening Event won by Ali Slater in a time of 23.25, so only 6.30 off the pace at the moment May have to take my saddlebag off and empty my pockets next time to see how much time that will buy me.