I arrived early for registration having noted the pigs ear of registration that the organisers made at last years Lincoln Grand Prix - but I shouldn't have bothered as it was seamless in and out to collect my race number for the bike and before I knew it I had ridden under the start arch and was on my way ! How quick was that !
The weather forecast had said the day before that the outlook was dry all day, so I was looking forward for a dry ride - how wrong was I ???
One we had started, it stayed dry for at least the first couple of miles and then it started to spit a little, then it started to drizzle and then it just rained.....and rained....and rained....oh and it was windy too.
I enjoyed the first 40 miles or so because I was riding well, and hopping inbetween some groups from time to time as well as riding on my own. I liked having the choice and felt like I was making progress. At about 40 miles the groups had fractured according to different paces and once I had stopped to put my rain jacket on, that was it, I rode solely on my own with the odd exchange of conversation should I pass or be passed.
The route was lumpy with a couple of long drags and a few short sharp hills, but nothing that I couldn't negotiate with a bit of hard work.
Halfway round I knew the time was going to be on the slow side, but made sure to break the ride down into half hour segments, and aiming to add 8 miles for each of these.
I didn't stop very long at the aid stations and this was just to cram as much rocky road into my mouth as I could !
I passed the last of these at about 86 miles and knew that I was going to get round under my revised target of 7 hours ( 6.15 being the target I set out with !!!)
6.53.56 it took me in total and I worked out that I finished 62nd out of 203 finishers, so I figure not as bad a performance on the day as I had told myself.
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