Hertfordshire Wheelers 10, 27-06-09

[Jon H]

This was a Saturday evening event on the F20/10 course, which is down and up the A10 near Ware.

It was looking like a float evening, and turned out to be one in a slightly differenct context. The forecast was for a hot, humid and still evening; also conditions for possible thunderstorms this time of year.

As I drove up there the thunder clouds were gathering, and as I arrived at the HQ there was a lot of people peering up into the sky and scratching their chins. I'd arrived quite early, so sat around for a bit as the view overhead began to resemble the sky over Mordor as Frodo approached Mount Doom. Sure enough, as I started my warm-up the raindrops started, and by the time I was due to start it was a full-on storm with thunder, lightning, rain, the whole lot.

By the time I was a couple of miles down the road I had that soggy chamois and squelching shoe feeling. My bike computer was going haywire due to water getting into the contacts, so I didn't have a clue how I was doing, but I certainly wasn't pedalling at the cadence of 400+ rpm it was showing me. I was completely soaked by the time the finish came round after 22 minutes and 39 seconds of full-on wetness. A season's best time for me; I think I'll go riding in the rain more often. Despite the rain there were some really quick times; the winner was Nino Piccoli in 18:46, a new course record.