I decided to let the big boys get on with it in the National 50 and do my own thing in the Reading CC version. The course is basically three and a half laps up and down the A4, so I got seven miles slight tailwind followed by seven miles gale in face for two hours or so.
HQ was at Aldermaston. The socially aware, politically concerned and those of a certain age will recall this village as the centre of CND marches during the Cold War. Unfortunately, it seems the road has not been resurfaced since then. I hit a pothole quite hard on the third lap (my fault, I'd seen it twice and avoided it), which rather messed up my clip-on TT bars. Armrests went one way and bars the other, with the result that I was both uncomfortable and unable to keep the 'power' going. I rode the last twelve miles or so on the drops, which was retro cool but a bit slow.
In truth, my legs at this stage were beginning to suggest that there were better things to do with a Sunday morning and it was already a bit of struggle.
I finished in 2:13:48, a couple of minutes off my best; but I did beat a septuagnenarian on a fixie. Don't laugh, he has beaten me in a 25 on this course
Well done to the guys in the Nationals; great ride from richv by the looks of things; Dominic - I put some new Pro Race on yesterday, having ridden mine for over a year without any problems. Your luck with them is bound to change, surely.
Mike