.The Festival run this with a road bike category as well (no tribars, disc wheels, aero helmets etc) so in a moment of madness I decided to enter twice. Two 10s on the Holmwood course in the space of an hour or so
.The second half of my season was a build up to the 12hr and after that everything has petered out a bit, which I suppose is only natural. Today was my final proper racing day as the hill climbs and Redmon 2-up will be for fun.
Take 1
Road bike - Off at number 3 and had planned on riding at about 80-90% so I didn't kill myself before the second ride. What actually happened was I dawdled up towards the turn and was only about half a mile away before I realised I was just cruising along and not really doing much more than a slightly vigorous warm up
.After the turn the usual headwind showed itself. Not that bad but enough to make things a bit more difficult. Realising I'd been pootling along I picked things up a bit and actually started trying, way too late to make any real difference but better than nothing.
Crossed the line with 26:48 which wasn't that good but better than I thought it would be after the really rather shoddy first 4 miles.
Interval
I had about half an hour before setting off for the second 10 so just got the TT bike ready, switched helmet for something more pointy and jersey for one with a different number pinned on, had a drink, and spun round for a bit to stop anything stiffening up
. I have my saddle quite a bit higher on my TT bike due to the different position I place myself in ( ) and switching immediately from my normal bike did feel a bit strange, sort of like the saddle was trying to be inserted somewhere .Take 2
TT bike - Final outing of the year for the slippery one. I was off number 68 and last man now, so at least no-one could catch me
. Made the effort to actually start with a bit more conviction this time and as I approached the turn I spotted someone just exiting it. Round I went and after my carrot, I caught him in the next mile and found it to be number 64 which surprised me a bit. The wind had moved on a bit and was now about a mile or two further down the road before it became noticeable. Still nothing untoward though and the sun had been a lovely warm thing on my back for both rides which is something novel this year.I was consciously pushing a bigger gear on the TT bike and crossed the line with a 25:10. About half a minute or so off my best on this course but a bit of dignity restored anyway.
Back to the HQ for a drink and some rather agreeable bread pudding. I can't remember the winners name just that he beat Christian Yates by one second. Norwood Paragon had their fast race boys out today (messrs Brueton, Callard, and Douglas) for the road bike category. None of them got an individual prize, unsurprising winner in Tim Stevens, but they grabbed the team prize with a 1:02 something so all doing the very fast time you'd expect from such quality riders. A quick congrats to Marcus and I was off home for a post race beer.
Ta, ta folks.
) Andrew - chapeau for doing the both categories one after t'other 
