There were some angry bees out and about today but they seemed to target the faster riders. There may be some significance in that; probably not. There was also a pretty relentless Southerly; it did ease for a while as it backed around to be more south-westerly but the conditions weren't 'easy'. This was only the second time we've ridden the full 80km version of this course and there was a substantial restructuring of the fastest-times listing; the only one left intact was the blokes' 40km time. And a field where 36% were girls! Maybe it says something about endurance events? It was the first time at the distance for a few of the girls too and the sense of achievement was pretty obvious at the end particularly in the light of the apprehension they started with - well done Susie, Michelle, Karen; to name a few! Particular thanks today to Paul Measey and Mark for doing the 40km starter's job. It was supposed to be an easy task but we ended up with a heap more starters there than we'd anticipated plus some apparent uncertainty about the Masters' cancelled event. So there was a bit of uncharacteristic confusion. Thanks also to Phil and Derek for doing corner marshalling and to Mal Lewington for also jumping in to help after he'd done his four laps. And, of course John Neville for doing the 80km starts (plus a few late-starting 40s!) and the Richards/Carr girls for 'manning' things back at the school.