After yesterday's rain the bit of drizzle that occurred soon after the start scarcely impressed but it was enough to cause some grief to Wayne Lally who only made it to the first corner; he did continue past the timekeepers the first time but abandoned soon after. The dampness also may have contributed to the several punctures: Pedro and Mark who had been travelling pretty well. Mark's average speed for his 21km trip was, in fact 43.3kph; well beyond the next contenders for fastest time. Pedro should have got home in time for his son's soccer match date and seemed less fazed by his DNF than proud of the fact that he had stayed upright when his tyre deflated - on a corner! Less pleased would have been Brian Carr whose encounter with one of the local bees won him a trip in an ambulance… bet he'd have been happier if it had been a Fire-engine!

Once things dried out on the road the atmosphere remained pretty moist and, even though there was very little wind, it didn't seemed to be a particularly fast day. In fact, not one person returned a PB. This was only surprising until it was realised that, despite the large number of laps that have been ridden around this circuit by an also-large number of riders, very few of today's riders had ever ridden this particular version of the course. Quite a few of the Masters, for example, have ridden the 38km version; quite a few of today's riders have ridden the 80km version of the circuit. So records were up for 'grabs' yet the closest anyone came was Lorraine who was only 12sec outside Jo Bennett's time in January. Michael Guerin, with his Standard time of +17:44 took the honours there from Lorraine but was still a bit short of the +18 recorded here several months ago.

Also having trouble with the local wild-life was Susie and the mob waiting for a start in today's ride - they had to contend with being 'rounded-up' by a not-so-helpful birder collie on the loose! Our other help-staff today included young Freddy who manned a corner; Byron Geneve who called numbers for the timekeeper who was assisted by Neilley paying another visit from the deep South. He also looked after the 'desk' for a while until the arrival of Mel(lifluous) Davies

Thanks also to the helper-crew from the WC Masters for the course-signage and their marshalling.

mouse