Did a warm up and thought it was very cold but couldn't feel a wind to speak of, so far so good. Started off at 66 so I had 65 a seeded rider to chase. Started off as described above and by the time I got to the Moorhead roundabout my mind was screaming 'not fast enough, not fast enough'. On my way to Moorhead I caught a glimpse of Robert pushing his bike back to the HQ
From there I gently upped the pace and found that my legs were not feeling good but I slotted into 53 x 15 and just decided to pedal, previously I had been trying to push ever bigger gears. Got to the first turn at Broadfield and caught a glimpse of 65 and thought 'god it looks like he's taken a minute of me'. Anyhoo pedal, pedal to Tollgate and the drag and went up it feeling really good and surprisingly quickly for me, must be this pacing lark, I thought. Got to the turn at the top and it was like 'whoa, that'll be the wind then' . Usually by the bottom of Tollgate I am in 53 x12 and hammering. I could only comfortably get in in 53 x14 and keep a good cadence.From there it just seemed a never ending slog and I seemed to have it in the 15 sprocket most of the way and kept pedalling. Seemed to be quite fast up to the Hop Oast roundabout and I seemed to be catching people in the 50s. Went down the other side quite fast and then caught a glimpse of 65 just exiting the Southwater roundabout as I was on the way up to it. This gave me the boost I needed as I was catching him ever so slowly.
Back up the drag to the Hop Oast for the last time and I ended up cycling on the left of the white line by the side of the road for smoothness sake as the road surface on the other side is that bumpy stuff they seem to be putting down everywhere. Up there in 53x 17, keep pedalling I was telling myself, up to the 16 by the bridge, to the roundabout onto the 15 and then finally down to the drag and onto the 14. Caught 58 within a third of a mile from the line, back to the 15 sprocket and gave it some. I had 54 in my sight but couldn't catch him by the line. Crossed and looked at my watch. I had gone inside the hour. This is based on my starting time, I don't use a stop watch or computer.
Back to the car and got changed. As I was walking into the HQ I heard Lee Turner say he was sitting in second with Keith Coffey first with a 55 something. This cheered me up as it was obviously a hard day and not just for me. I have never seen a results board with some many 5 figure times. Even some of the seeded riders were outside the hour. As you can imagine I was very pleased when my time came up as 58.59. I was about 3.5 minutes from the leading time when I left. Well chuffed on a windy day. Just wait till I get a good day on that course
Left before Mike finished so don't know his time.
Andrew just as well we didn't do the flapjack deal there as there was only two bits left when I finished
.
