First time for me on this sporting course 50, although I knew the first 40 miles through combinations of other courses.
From the bits I knew I knew it would be fairly tough going, but I like 50s and was looking forward to it. Was nice to see PVT in a couple of places on course giving me a shout.
Thought about a 2:10 target taking the lumps in to account. Finished with 2:12:02 but was happy as I'd have got the 2:10 or just under were it not for stopping at 37 miles for a bit to give my front wheel a good check after hitting a pothole at 27mph. A lot of potholes to avoid on the course and I just missed dodging this one. It made such a loud noise I thought the wheel would be destroyed but fortunately it looked okay so I remounted and carried on. Bit of a pig to stop mid race but I didn't want to carry on racing and hit a fast bit not knowing if the wheel was about to give way.
After the pothole smash I had the leg to Findon and back which I didn't know, nasty long drag to the turn but flew back from the turn to the finish, which was down a lane for the last mile that had been chipped 2 days earlier so was a bit of a dusty affair with stones pinging of the bottom of the frame, good job it's titanium .