Hainault hilly

[Jon H]

I like this event. With the event starting at 10 o'clock and me off at number 66 I got a lie-in this morning, a leisurely breakfast and a relaxed drive north of the river into Essex in bright sunshine. Seemed a bit breezy when I got out of the car at the HQ, which was confirmed when I got the disk wheel out of the boot and the wind caught it and almost sent it into Cambridgeshire. Ah, right, that'll be bloody windy then, not just a bit breezy.

The course starts off with an undulating loop of 10 miles which would make a good sporting course in its own right. However, it's just a taster of what's to come. I went past the start point just before number 93 was starting, so that was 27 minutes for the first 10 miles. So, after that comes the proper hilly bit - an out and back section which for about five miles each way is constantly up and down, making it really difficult to get into a rhythm. After that it's back onto the loop bit for another draggy few miles to the finish.

I caught my minute man at about 8 miles, then got caught by 67 at around 15 miles, followed a few minutes later by number 70. Well, despite the windy conditions I managed to do a course PB 1:20:36 for 28.8 miles, which is around a minute faster than my previous best from 2006. Well chuffed with that. I think the winner did about a 1:11, and I was around 20th out of about 90. I left before all the results were up so that's a bit of a guess.

[Snoop Doug]

Good work Jon, all that diverse riding you've been doing over winter paying nice dividends

Snoop

[Andrew G]

Good result Jon in the Tour of Essex's Hills.

[Roy Green]

I used to like the Hainault Hilly Forty way back when. Mind you, It used to be 40 miles, not your pastry-eating kilometres ... (ref. the Chris Hoy Bran Flakes adverts )