Ben Crick writes…
I decided to try an “out of the county” race and went back to my home city of Canterbury and took part in the Wigmore CC 25 Mile Time Trial (Bill Philbrook Memorial) 25 on Q25/8 which started between Chilham and Challock in Kent . It was an early start but the organiser gave me 07:38 so not too crazy and I arrived in good time. It was cool at 6 degrees C, but a clear blue sky that would warm me up and certainly better than the last 2 races which were hardly above Zero at the start. So with no toe warmers on and one base layer under the skin suit, I headed for the off.
The first 2 miles is downhill and my average speed was 27mph and by the time I reached the first turn at 6 miles it was still over 25MPH! I knew it would not last but it felt good and no-one had passed me (yet). It was warming up and I wondered if the arm warmers should have been left behind as I pushed over the next rolling 11 miles to the 2nd turn . The lumps had reduced my Avg speed to 23.0 but the next 7 miles were kinder and speed was rising so I was starting to think about a PB. As I made the last turn it was going to be close but the last half mile was some of that downhill I enjoyed earlier and I crossed the line 11 secs off PB. Of the 85 finishes I was 53rd which is my best relative placing.
The best was yet to come as the finish is 4 miles from the HQ and it’s mostly up hill 
1 Peter Tadros In-Gear Quickvit Trainsharp RT Vet 00:52:12
2 Kevin Tye Velorefined Aerosmiths Vet 00:52:25
3 Seth Kay Race-Wheels.co.uk 00:52:57
53 Ben Crick East Grinstead CC Vet 01:04:38
