Kingston Phoenix 15

[Tamar]

Horrible weather on Saturday pm and Keith & I drove to Holmwood praying for the event to be called off. It wasn't. We set off on the tandem in the rain for the first of our rides and to my surprise, I found that we were going quite well. Usually we both want to ride at different cadences and I get accused of having an uneven pedal stroke. Well, what a difference a bit of track riding makes! I concentrated on pedalling circles and Keith kept us in a slightly higher than usual cadence. At last we got it together and stormed round in a shade over 33 mins, a time which was not matched by any of the solo riders. This was a huge relief for me as in the past Keith has gone faster solo than we did on the tandem!

Luckily there was a car park near the start so we swallowed a bit of carbo drink, swapped from tandem to solo bikes, had a quick spin of the pedals and returned to the start line. I was feeling nicely warmed up (to the point of nausea!) and determined to banish the demons of my previous abysmal solo ride on this horrible lumpy circuit. This time I felt brilliant. My heart rate was higher than it's been all season and I felt really smooth and strong. Got held up by some cars lined up behind a slower rider and couldn't overtake due to oncoming traffic. Grrr. Eventually charged past and put the hammer down. HR 180+. Lungs and legs were revelling in the pain. They could take it today.

Came joint 1st with Angela Nainby in 39.45. Incidentally, there used to be an ACC women's record of 39.56 set by Daphne Grist in 1952. It was in the handbook until the mid-60s (according to Chris Watts) but then for some reason dropped from print.

Keith came 2nd in overall solo so we had quite a good share of the winnings.

[Andrew G]

[quote]Incidentally, there used to be an ACC women's record of 39.56 set by Daphne Grist in 1952. It was in the handbook until the mid-60s (according to Chris Watts) but then for some reason dropped from print.

[Tamar]

No, it's a slightly different course. Starts on Mill Road about halfway along the first stretch of our '10' course. Uphill start (eugh) then turn left onto dual carriageway. At Beare Green r'bt take 3rd exit (A29). Nasty rough road surface. Ew. A few fast sections though. Then turn left onto horrible up and down section - very hard to maintain momentum - smooth surface but lots of drags. Left again onto A24 single carriageway to eventually join Capel r'bt (where we turn on the '10'). Zoom back along dual carriageway, over Beare Green r'bt up the 1st drag to finish just the other side.

Anyhow, you can tell the monopolies commission that I don't think it'll be long before Lance's thong is snapping at my heels for some records of her own.