I knew I was going to struggle to make the club Ten this week so as a contingency, I had the bike in the back of the car which had just had the bearing on the front fork replaced. Going round the corners feels much safer and stable now so thanks to Steve Dennis and Geoff Watson for advising correctly, what the problem was.
I had looked at the weather forecast the night before and it looked just right for a crack at my PB for the Horne course. I was a little miffed that I may miss the chance to have a go but my back up plan was to join the Epsom CC guys in their club 10 on G10/57. By 6.45pm I knew I was not going to get on the Horne course so by 7.30, I was signed on and warming up for the Epsom CC ten.
There was a SW breeze and by the time I got over the top of that horrible little hill at the start, I felt my 30 sec man go past me, he really was motoring but after just over 1 mile, please!. My PB for this course was 23:48 so by the turn, which is about 5 miles I was on 24.9 mph so a good time was on if I had the legs. I pushed hard all the way back and crossed the line in 23:37.
So what/who was that blur that passed me? Well it was a pro rider called Edmund Bradbury who rode a 19:12 (is that a course PB?) , on not a perfect evening but what a time!! 20 riders started and finished, times below:
- Edmund Bradbury 19:12
- Paul Deen 21:33
- Paul Thompson 21:42
- Ben Crick 23:37
Ben
