Ben Crick writes…
The weather had originally been forecasted as heavy showers, then light so when I got out of bed at
0445 and the skies looked clear, I was very relieved. On the way down my car temperature was
showing 6 C so it was going to be fresh and the long sleeve base layer was the order of the day.
G25/89m was the course, I was 9th off out of 50 and by the time 06:39 came round I was warmed up.
Armed with some good advice from Mike Anton I was prepared for some poor road surfaces and a lumpy
run for my first 25M. The sun was out and there was hardly any wind so I was hopeful of getting
under 1:10 which was my goal for 2011. I had recently beat my goal for 10M on G10/57 with a sub
26minutes.
First 2 miles were very quick but I still got passed by rider 10 after about 6 minutes. Got to the
turnaround point with an average speed of 22MPH so I was on for a good time (well for me anyway) and
managed to pass rider 8 who was old enough to be my dad, so respect to him! Managing to keep pushing
constantly all the way back I was really pleased to see the AVG speed at 22.1MPH when I crossed the
line giving me a time of 1:07:52 (PB).
Got back to HQ , saw some of the times on the board which included mine and glad I was not last! I
am still amazed how fast people can ride and considering that in a field of 50 over 40 were vets and
most older than me.
Lessons learnt: Did I actually need a water bottle? Must get more aero, lose some weight and an aero
helmet is the next purchase.
