Paul Blackmore writes…
We left Andy (Seltzer) to his warm up and sampled the above average catering. This was after all the first round of the National Time Trial Series. The Rudy Project tent housed the PCs and printers and at the end of the room a big result sheet – measuring a good 4 metres across – was starting to show activity as the first riders came in.
With 15 minutes to kick off we braved the rain, which had just started, to dash to the car and make our way onto the course to cheer on our Chairman. Shortly after joining what we thought was the course we stopped at some temporary traffic lights. A couple of riders ambled past us.
Round the corner we arrived at the start and Andy was standing there getting wet. As he passed us his top and bottoms he advised us it was now only one lap, instead of two, around 11 miles, due to said traffic lights.
We set off for a suitable position to watch, finally settling on the top of a slight drag. I was out with the camera, Mrs Seltzer out cheering with Mrs Blackmore minding Seltzer junior in the car. Andy came pass surprisingly quickly, 30 seconds up on his minute man, so fast I failed to get a decent picture. We jumped back in the car off to another vantage point. Again Andy was still humming along the second time past, getting plenting of encouragement from us.
Our last stop was half way up the longest climb, about half a mile before the finish. The rain was now hard enough for Mrs Seltzer to resort to shouting encouragement from the car window, but I did manage to get an OK picture (not Mr Anton standard). Andy finally caught his minute man.
Andy seemed quite pleased back at the HQ. Curiously listed under the ‘senior’ category, he finished with 27:54 for 27th place. Top spot went to Gethin Butler with 24:03, winning by 27 seconds.
(photos to follow)
