Sleaford Wheelers Charity 10

Third time of racing this popular Charity event which this year featured a record entry of 130 riders. My two previous efforts on this course had been a disasterous 2013 effort of 27.22 & last years smile inducing 24.23 - so I knew it was a course that can throw up good and bad rides in equal measure.

Throw my trike into the mix and you have a recipe for an interesting outing !

Target for the day was to beat 27.43 which was my last ride and interestingly my VTTA standard for a 42 year old. I would need to beat an average of 21.6mph to achieve this, but, I felt in great shape, and confident that if I worked hard, I could achieve it.

My start time was 14.54 and as I rode to the start I could feel that it was quite a still day with little wind around to cause much of a problem. I only had five minutes of waiting and then before I knew it I had been sent away and I was powering down the first shallow ramp and into a good cadence. I had thought that it was a road without much cadence to speak of but the beauty of a trike is that if there is anything at all - the trike will find it and this was the case as I had to battle constantly in some parts to keep the thing on a good line.

At 5 miles or so, there is a roundabout and I exited this at c.21.9mph, so I knew that I was in good shape to PB and thought that I would have a backwind to assist although that never came. The lack of wind meant that it was honest graft all the way around the course. I did pick up some pace on the return leg and did get the average above 22.2mph to finish with a new PB of 27.07.

A very satisfying days work and an age record for my VTTA group.