The breeze was swinging about a bit, started moderately a little to the SE but built up and had a touch of Northerly in it towards the end.

That, of course didn't apparently take anything from another inspirational ride from Matt Illingworth as he tore 5min50sec from Mark Robert's course record and also established a new event record. The previous event record was Adrian Perry's 1:49:39 ridden on the Elleker course near Albany 15 years ago and putting Matt's ride into the context of an equivalent distance, today he covered 80km in 1:47:31. On his way to today's 80km record he also took about 2min off the 41km record for the Wandi course. Perhaps his times did reflect the effect of the increasing wind speed as they nudged over the 14min mark for a few laps; but had the wind suddenly dropped when he stormed home on the final lap - his fastest of all - in 13:41?

There were other rides there to inspire: Nigel removed some slack from his previous best on the course - about 9 ½min of slack; Peter Allen was determined to 'PB' today in the sense that last year he had to settle for seven laps. Today he completed the eight and looks to be heading back towards that elusive 30kph mark on his Hand-cycle. James Ormerod was one of just a few PBs amongst the 40km opt-ers; Linda Evans had to make up about 13 sec she lost in a late start and she did that in fine fashion with negative splits for a couple of laps before slightly fading in the last. Among the 80km riders about a quarter in fact posted PBs. Obviously that number doesn't include first-timers on the course so Wandi was not too unkind overall.

Some might dispute this. The unluckiest man and one who will possibly never want to wear the number 13 again was Dave Nangle. He pulled up within 20m of the start, got that problem sorted and managed to restart about five minutes later only to be one of those claimed by the puncture grems. He gave up! Jose A bears the scars of a previous encounter with Wandi. Today two puntures were needed to force him to abandon. Maybe fortunate was Steve McKiernan who punctured on the final lap at the furthest point from home He had no option but to fix the puncture and complete the course.

While Matt was laying waste to Mark Robert's old times, Mark was nevertheless having fun setting a new benchmark for himself on his way to the Masters' Nationals and was easily the second fastest man on the circuit today; consolation, we hope but Mark certainly accepts that records are there to be challenged.

We had a bucketful of superb helpers to make sure things ran smoothly: Susie was everywhere, doing the job of at least half-a-dozen; Lorraine was able to concentrate on her ride after we initially set up and Susie, then Lois looked after the desk; Roger Hales was there to hold riders upright while Nicky counted them off at the start under the eye of MrP with Helen Watkins calling rider numbers for the timekeeper; Duncan Farrow marshalled the driveway entrance to the Community Center and the marshals at the other points were: Peter Fallon and Don Griffin; Joe Cox and Alan Dent with John Ferris on the turn into DeHaer. Once again, thank you! We owe you lots.