Ah today was the one and only race this year on the infamous Q10/19 (Tonbridge Bypass). To be honest I think some of its prior infamy has wained over the years as the road surface is a bit bumpy in a couple of places (although not exactly Surrey lanes) and they are only allowed early starts on it, in the past you could run evening 10s on it and have glorious warm summer float evenings. The drag up the slip road to the turn is a bit of a slog too, but that said it's still one of the fastest courses in the South East with a gift start. Today there was a bit of a breeze but it was a head wind return which I prefer as on something as short as a 10 my legs are going better on the return leg.
I was looking forward to this one and first winner of the day was Jon. The race was also marked as one of Ian Cammish's Old School Series and Jon was a star riding his old steel Holdsworth fixed wheel bike .
Just as I was about to warm up it started raining , so I hid in the bike shed (didn't have a crafty fag though) and fortunately it eased off about 20 minutes before I was due to start. Grabbed the pointy hat and set off.
5,4,3,2,1, Go! Off I went and down the slip road to the A21, flicked it up to 53x11 and gave it some clocking a top speed of 48mph. All to soon it ends and then along the flat before a slight rise just after halfway to the turn. I was really tuned in today and just kept pushing, so it was a bit of a surprise when my minute man (and seeded rider) came by after 8 minutes .
Gave Jon a little wave as we passed each other on opposite sides of the road, and then up the slip road to the turn. Back down t'other side and push for home. Again I seemed to be getting the pedals spinning in a pretty big gear quite well. My legs were hurting but in the good way when your really hammering along. A bit of gurning with the effort but managed to keep it looking more normal for Mike and his camera, nice shout from Mike and on I went for the finish.
The finish is a bit deceptive as it's just after a layby, but there's an identical layby a bit earlier on the road which fools you a bit - or me anyway. Very slight rise to the flag and I knew I'd done a good ride so made sure I bellowed my number loud for the timekeeper.
Good news, I'm now a member of the 25mph club with my time of [size=150]23.22[/size]
[img]http://www.funnies.com/wackyheadpt/yellow_guy_smiling_really_big_hg_wht.gif[/img]
Oh for a warm still day to ride this course but delighted with my time and the ride was probably the best 10s I've done as I was really focused for it today.
My legs felt a bit fatigued on the climb up to the turn roundabout, think this is due to commuting yesterday when I should have rested after the 50 mile commute and 45 minute swim on thursday, so I expect to go about as fast as an old man with rickets tomorrow...but I don't care now .
The bloke who caught me so early (I caught no-one and no-one else caught me) won with 20.22 which would explain things.
Addiscombe:
Robert Royle-Evatt 24.01
George Brent 22.24
Dominic Lowe 22.44
Mark McLaughlin 22.36 (new PB from Mr. Fine Wine)
Jonathan Hemming 24.55 (5th in Old School Series and riding fixed)
Andrew Green 23.22
That has to be the longest report on a 10 .