Richard Woodward writes…
I have just received the result sheet for the Alton CC,s event on the H25/8. The official time was 1:00:00 !! I’m a bit suspicious of it but won’t argue with it.
On the morning of Alton CC’c 25 mile TT on the fast H25/8 course near Farnham the air was still. A light mist and no wind boded well for a nice morning with fast times. My optimism was ill founded as by the time I had reached the event HQ the mist has thickened and the organisers delayed the start for 1 hour.
As the hour ticked by thunder could be heard in the background and the distant flash of lightning was seen. I still lived in hope for a good ride but then at 9:28 the rain started then 9:29 I was off.
The rain was falling vertically but fairly light as I set of on the 2 lap course buy the time I passed the start for the second lap the light rain became torrential and soon I was riding through streams of water and out in the middle of the road to miss the flooding gutters. By the end I was so wet that when a couple of cars ploughed through a big puddle covering both carriageways creating a bow wave that went over my head I didn’t get any wetter.
Back at the HQ, times were very slow being posted and before I could get my time I had to leave for a pub appointment. The results arrived in due course and out of the 114 riders on the start sheet 45 failed to start including our own Stefano and only 3 of the starters failed to finish.
The event was won by Richard Prebble in fast time of 51:29. For myself I was pleased to have ridden another personal best time of 60 minutes exactly. If only I had sprinted for the line..
