Hainault hilly 50k

[Jon H]

After getting my season off to a good start last week with a top 10 placing, things went a bit pear shaped during the week when I got a cold. But by the weekend the worst was over so I decided to firstly go and do the acting thing in London on Saturday, and race on Sunday. Well if I'd known that the acting would last all day I wouldn't have bothered - spending most of the day standing around in the cold isn't exactly the best race preparation. Right, that's two excuses in the bag, onto the race report.

The Hainault hilly is an unusual TT course, there's hardly any flat on it, it has a couple of botton gear out-of-saddle climbs, lots of drags, some crap surfaces and five right turns.

Got a bit of a lie-in, as the event didn't start until 10am, and I was off at 11.10 as last rider but one. Warmed up wearing arm and knee warmers, woolly hat, full gloves and long sleeved jersey, thinking it would be a cold March morning. Took off the hat & jersey and was ready to go. Should have gone for shorts and track mitts, as I was overdressed and completely sweltering by mid-race. (excuse number three). Experimented a bit and only took a gel with me, should have taken a bottle really as I was going to be out for well over an hour. (excuse number four).

Once the guy behind me had caught me it was hard to judge how I was doing, as I wasn't catching many people. Stuggled quite a bit on some of the drags into the headwind, but felt OK on the steeper climbs. Died with about 4 miles to go and finished in 1:22:50, over a minute slower than last year. 19th place out of 60 finishers which I suppose is not too bad all things considered.

[Andrew G]

Well done anyway Jon, even if you were a bit slower this year, odd course with right turns, let alone 5 of them.

A good standard of excuse making, always important to have a variety to pluck from your bag I think. (I may add some of those to my ever growing list.)