Joyce and I drove down to Oakwoodhill for the start of the Southern Counties Sporting weekend, 10 this afternoon and a 25 tomorrow morning.
Was joined by Robert RE, Fred Schwarz and Carl Ferri.
I set off hard and had 4 riders ahead of me to catch and overtake
I was feeling great today and kept the cadence nice and high which enabled me to optimise my power output. A nasty set of pot holes right across the road after the second corner and I was a little worried as I heard a big thump, luckily no harm done so I cracked on.
I knew a bit of pain was in the recipe today to get a fast 10 time so really eeked as much as I could from my legs, which hurt quite a bit but kept me propelling along nicely.
Caught my 2 minute man after 1 mile, well he was 72 years old
caught another 70 year old at Oakwood hill then had the next chap towards Ockley.The short climb up towards Forest Green and I finally caught Robin the event secretary and was first man on the road.
From here on it was more pain and really hard trying to push the legs still harder down the hills trying to keep the power up.
Left turn at Walliswood and before I knew it it was all over, so a cool down ride and back to Joyce at the HQ for a nice cuppa.
A good feeling in the HQ as my time was fastest right till the top seed came home, pipped me by over a minute for the win.
I was very happy indeed with my ride today as this time last year I was a minute slower on this course, and managed to take some good scalps.
George 23.33
Robert 26.48
Jonathan H DNS
Fred 26.14
Carl Ferri 24.33
Great rides by Fred on his road bike and Carl with a super quick time indeed just missing out on the team win by just 4 seconds to the Bec
Looking forward to the 25 tomorrow
Thnaks to all the organisers and marshals who helped to make this a great even and thanks Robin for the bottles of wine
