Hell of Ashdown report

[Ian A4size]

Michelle... think of the young six fingered lad playing the banjo, in the film "deliverence"...

[Michelle]

' Oh Suzannah, don't ye cry for me,
for I've gone to Alabamy with mah banjo on my knee'

Why is this in my head? (SNOOOOOP!)

Suffice it to say...

great day, great weather, truly astonishing views. On my own most of the way round.
I was only every covered in sweat three times, the Wall, Ides Hill and Star Hill. Result!

[huw williams]

[quote="Sylv"]It's all about the bike

[Jon H]

Phil O'Conner's been quick off the mark with getting all the photos uploaded:

http://www.pictureselect.com/bespoke/Ph ... g%20Events

[Snoop Doug]

There's some good ones in there thanks Jon. Great one of Keith tanking down pantcrapper hill no brakes, previous page is one of me with all fingers locked round the brakes

Timings are on the catford web site - I'm in shock. I finished 225/316 Normally I'm in the final four or five tops of any ride I do.

[Snoop Doug]

[quote="huw williams"]Snoop if someone had said to you at the top of Star Hill at the end - "Right, now you gotta go round again..." See what I mean?

[Andrew G]

Spot on Huw, the Rapha lot were so snobby at the end with their own little clique. One bloke came in handing round musettes to the team. What for other than to try and show off, you don't need food in a musette when you're sitting in a village hall with a tray of food in front of you . I thought it just made them look like a bunch of twats.

As you say think of the free PR if they'd handed out some free musettes and bidons at the end, hardly going to cost them much money (the musettes were only normal cotton ones not an exotic mix of finest Egyptian cotton hand made in a Milanese fashion house).

Jon asked if I'd seen the other Andrew G, and when I said no told me I should go round again. Needless to say this comment was treated with the contempt it deserved as I stuffed another sausage roll in my mouth.

[Andrew G]

Next one is [url=http://www.addiscombe.org/members/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5962]here.[/url]

[huw williams]

Results

Some creative interpretation of the timings going on with the top few riders here methinks

Now I'm no maths expert but I figure that riders who started behind me by a few minutes yet finished over half an hour in front of me must have come past me on the road at some point right?

As I was riding in the front group I can comfirm that no-one came past our little group during the entire ride and the scorer at the end confirmed that we were first riders back

And a 30 minute gap between rider number 6 and rider number 7? I don't THINK so

Anyway, no matter because fastest man on the day with a staggering 3:04 (averaging over 21mph) was ACCs very own Ed (EdO) Osbourne

[Andrew G]

That would explain the speed Ed shot off at then .
Rider placed 27th Andy Lillicrap

[Andrew G]

From the official timing so may be a bit out on some. I know Ed flew round but the results look odd with the first few riders 30-40 mins clear of everybody else (45 mins clear of Keith and Huw ):

Ed 3.04
Keith 3.52
Huw 3.54
Jon H 4.07
Michelle 4.20
Andrew G 4.32
Paul D 4.32
Adrian 4.34
Mark Locke 4.52
Jonathan B 4.57
Snoop 5.03

I know I've probably missed a couple but don't know surnames to search on.

[huw williams]

Like I say - if riders were starting behind me and keith - they would have to have come past us quite early on the road to finish over 40 minutes ahead of us - nobody came past our group and I know not many were capable of going past Keith the way he was flying round

its probably a simple case of finishing times being entered incorrectly - I suspect that rider Number 7 at 3:40 is the fastest time. Otherwise there should be dozens of riders between the times of 3:09 and 3:40

Help us out here Ed - what did your computer say?

[Snoop Doug]

I've never bought a piece of (c)rap ha before and I sure as hell (of ashdown) ain't gonna now. I've emailed (c)rap ha to tell 'em what a bunch of jerks their team looked @ the finish on Sunday. Doubtless news of my all round cycling prowess will have reached these jokers and so I'll surely be expecting a personal call from the prez of (c)rap ha himself to apologise soonest......

[huw williams]

Sometin like that

the irony is two of the guys in our group when it was 4 strong after Ashdown were part sponsored by Rapha and were riding in full black kit on Pistas - nicest guys you could care to ride with - worlds apart from their elite colleagues

[huw williams]

Just had a red-faced organiser on the phone - as expected the first 6 times are all +1 hour - so you can work out your ammended positions based on that

which puts Keith in a superb top 10 and me in 14th but we both still got pasted by a girl - Claire Thomas

I'm assuming due to the locality that this is not Elite rider Claire Thomas of Edinburgh CC who is scottish national champ - in which case who is it?

Tamar, Maria can you help?