TA Fliss Beard National 100

I've just had a very long drive back from South Wales where I competed at the Trike Associations National 100 Champs using the R100/8a course - Raglan-Abergavenney-Mitchell Troy on the A40.

I stayed at Newent Golf & Lodges last night, and managed to arrive in good time so that I had time to drive the course and hide a couple of bottles in the hedgerows. the course looked fast when I drove it and really looked forward to riding it as I was confident of a good crack at the clubs 100 mile trike record.

With a low Southerly wind, I was optimistic when I lined up at no.6 at just past 7. I would have 5 Trikies in front of me, and this would help me chase down the 21.1 mph average I would need to maintain over the 100.6 mile course.

7.06 and I'm off. Maybe I went too hard, but the first 6 miles was rolling SC and I was happily keeping above evens knowing that when I got on the DC, I would be even faster. One turn later onto the Dual Carriageway and uurghh ! Slow as you like (for a DC), a real grovel with some faster bits granted - a bit of a let down to be fair. (They had a float day on the Stockton 100 as well, how does that work ?). Half a lap on the DC, and then up a ramp from Raglan onto another SC section, this was the hardest but fun part of the course - I was fast through here despite the climbing and it broke up the dual carriageway monotony.

First of four laps done in 21.1 miles so bang on what I needed, lap 2 got even better 21.2 mph so I was ahead of record pace at that point. Same at 57 miles, but then it started to hurt and I dropped to a 20.4 mph average for the third lap - this increased to 20.5 for the last effort, which threatened to be a wet one, but was just a quick shower thankfully.

I think 4.51.04 and the win on the day. It really really hurt though - a 100 on a Trike is worth a 12 hr on a regular bike - or at least thats how it feels !