West Pennine RC 25

[Tamar Collis]

We were up north at the weekend for a friend's 50th birthday party on Saturday....but not wishing to miss a whole weekend's racing we entered the WPRC 25 on the Sunday morning. Our request for a late start was honoured but with a field of just 50 riders we were still having to get up and pack our tent at 5.30 am to make my 8.17 start.

Actually Keith had already exited the tent once that morning - rather rapidly at 4am - the result of discovering a rather smooth bottle of 21yr old single malt earlier in the evening and his stomach objecting.

Needless to say it wasn't our finest ride...but at least for me as the only woman entered all I had to do was finish, which I did in a modest 1.06.31 to take £10, a trophy and an invite to the WPRC dinner in November.

Keith managed a 56.06 and 3rd place. Winner did 55.20something.

[Maria David]

Well done Tamar ! Another year, another club dinner, another trophy - all in a day's work - just a different club ! Hope you're well stocked up on polish !

By the way, is this the one where you do a dead turn in the middle of the main road ??

Maria
http://2wheelchick.blogspot.com/

[Tamar Collis]

Yeah! It was totally bonkers. There was a layby with a couple of cars parked in it, and a bollard. Two marshals were stood just to the left of the bollard, gesticulating vaguely. I'd presumed I had to go round left of bollard, but they were stood in the way, so I just made sure I went well past the bollard before I turned. But there there were cars coming both ways so I drifted almost to end of layby before I finally made the turn. Still...made a better job of it than the winner who apparently fell off.

Turn two was no better - you turn off left on a sharp right angle then immediately the road bends right and you go up through a village with parked cars on either side, a rubbish surface and a significant drag. At the top the road bends right again and you have to turn right onto the road you originally turned off before the village. Again, cars in both directions meant it was not my fastest turn. But then again I've been held up worse on the G25/53 with all those roundabouts.

[Andrew G]

[quote]There was a layby with a couple of cars parked in it, and a bollard. Two marshals were stood just to the left of the bollard, gesticulating vaguely. I'd presumed I had to go round left of bollard, but they were stood in the way, so I just made sure I went well past the bollard before I turned. But there there were cars coming both ways so I drifted almost to end of layby before I finally made the turn. Still...made a better job of it than the winner who apparently fell off.

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

Turns in the road were banned some years ago, and some courses get round that by filtering into a lay-by and turning back out of it, so I guess that is what you should have done.

There used to be a 25 course on the A4 that did that until Bob Donington had a near-fatal accident.