Attempt 1 - April - Melton Olympic 10 - A cold and windy day on the A46 between Lowdham & East Stoke - on it's day, so we were told, it could be fast, but you have to hit it right. Today was not one of those days, and the three of us ground close times of 23.47 to 24.02 to be wildly short of the target mark. We would need to average 22.57 to take the comp record so you can see a three minute fail is a big gap.
Attempt 2 - June - Breckland CC 10 - One of our favourite courses, the A11 near Norwich, in fact we commented we should be club members as we'd ridden most of Breckland's championship events than the Lincolnshire ones. This was a better effort with Dave getting the 22.52 required, but both myself and Ian the other side of the line with 23.10 & 23.12. A long drive back for all of us with plenty to reflect upon with some lost seconds here and there.
Attempt 3 - July - The F11/10 course on the Tring bypass. Early morning event, fast course with a gift hill in the middle, very fast and where we had been within 10 seconds last year. We were bang up for this, weather was good, traffic was light, Gaz was with us and were a four man attack team. The organiser knew before we had started that we were odds on to do it, even arranging for a group photo afterward. Four very solid rides and riding back to the HQ we were sure from our man maths that we had sneaked it by two seconds. We had the photo, we signed the record forms and then next day found out that we'd missed it by 4 seconds. We were very quiet in our group chat for a good few days after that. Would it ever fall and would we be chasing it into our 70's !
Attempt 4 - September - Last chance saloon - Back on the A46 course where we had started the year for a last roll of the dice. The weather gods had been nice to us and the wind was light and in the right direction. Early riders coming back told me it was fast but I didn't quite believe it. Boy, was it !! Although not feeling particularly quick, both myself and Ian put away c.22.30 rides, giving Dave almost a minute leeway. Did he need it ? Nah, the watt monster mullered the club record posting an insanely quick 21.47. After 3 attempts this year already, and a further 5 spread across 2019-2020, we had taken nearly 2 minutes off. It goes to show that you do need some luck in this game , and after some dollops of bad, we finally hit a fast course on a fast day. Good times 🙂
Other attempts - Just to show the other side of record chasing we had other misses during the year - firstly, we tried to improve our 30 record which we already hold, but pre-Dave joining the team. In May we went down to F30 course which had too many roundabouts and a particularly bad ride from me to get anywhere near, then in the second attempt on the Breckland course in August, we pushed it so close, failing by just three seconds overall. Dave had lost his chain and without that we'd have done it. That's that luck I was talking about.
Talking about luck, we had the idea to ride the Breckland 100 in July. Ian had put away a 4.28 the previous month for the club record and all of us thought we could take it. Nice early morning start, clear roads & nice weather. Four times up and down the A11, 25 mile laps each on a course we knew well ! We could regularly see each other and knew we were each ahead of schedule. At 73 miles I turned the Snetterton turn for the penultimate time and then joined the carriageway to find it closed by the police as a DPD driver (on a clear day, had somehow rear ended a rider). I was soon joined by Dave and then Ian , and that was that - event abandoned. That was some effort by the team, but sometimes it goes like that, nothing we could do.
So what's next ? Next year definitely the 30, some more tandem action , maybe another crack at the 100.
See you next year 🙂
