Last year I had three truly bad rides - an aborted 12 hr attempt, a 2hr.23 50 miler, and a 27.22 on the Sleaford Wheelers Charity 10. So, this year has a sub text of banishing those particular demons during the course of this year, so.....1st up - the C10/10 Sleaford Wheelers Charity 10 !
Held every year in support of Cancer Research UK, this popular charity 10 miler attracts over 100 entrants and raises over £1,000 for Charity. The course is a single carriageway out and back and last year saw a horrible crosswind either way which did nothing but hinder me. This year also saw a crosswind and at 13mph I thought it was going to be case of deja vu as I lined up as no.46 and waited for my start slot. There were a couple of wheelers coming in who gave accounts of ' consistent' & 'better on the way back !'.
As soon as the clock said 2.46pm, I found out what the course was like - all over the place. The start was down a bit of a ramp and I enjoyed a fast one, however it soon slants up a bit and the speed slowed a lot. There were bits where I felt a backwind assistance, and then others where I had a cross headwind - strange ! I turned the roundabout in good order though and felt like I was riding well. My aim was to beat last years performance and an average of more than 22.18mph would achieve this - and as I was averaging over 24 at the turn I felt good.
The return leg also felt like a backwind at time and I was only really slowed by the profile of the road being a bit draggy in places. I experienced some headwind parts but still had an average of over 24mph going into the last mile. One short drag later and it was all out for a near 3 minute improvement on last year at 24.23 !
One demon was truly exorcised today, and now just two more to go !
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