Ben Houston writes…
First open of the season, and to mark this occasion I picked a lumpy 2 lap affair based at Oakwoodhill, figuring it would not attract a full field and my blank entry form would surely be accepted!
On the morning itself, it was cold with some breeze, but at least the roads had dried out for a change. I exchanged a few words of encouragement at the HQ with Ted Boorman who was off early.
Unfortunately for Ted, the route from the HQ to the start shared the road with a Sportive, which had some impressive signage. After a few well signed miles of country lanes Ted realized this was not looking like the start area and missed his TT start time. Despite this he elected to ride a lap as training anyway.
On to the race itself, sadly the course had no less then 4 sets of temporary traffic lights which sprung up at short notice, almost causing event organiser Robin Johnson to cancel. So we were advized to respect the lights which were marshalled.
Only got held up at 2 of the 4 but it seemed like an eternity to be standing in a TT chatting to other riders. Nevertheless, enjoyed my first ’25’ in a good few years and was happy to record 1:05:27 and 24th place. Pro rider Elliott Porter (Rapha Condor) took the win with 53:50, edging out local fastman Steve Kane (Brighton Excel) by half a minute.
