I was a bit out with my predictions.
I looked at the
course profile and thought 160m of climbing on a 4km lap doesn't sound much, but then that's 160m of climbing in 2km with 160m of descent in the other 2km, or an average slope of about 1:12. That's pretty steep.
My target of 10km/h would mean I would need to lap in 24 minutes.
For the first two hours I was slightly ahead of schedule.
At the end of the second lap the commentator announced that I was 4th solo male.
This could only mean one thing; I'm riding too fast.
Sure enough my speed gradually dropped until near the end I was lapping in about 33 minutes.
As I came through on the start of my last lap, the commentator announced that I was 11th solo male. However, there's a fun class and a competitive class and I don't know if he meant 11th in my class or overall.
The course was a bit too steep for my liking. I was walking up a lot of the hills then getting stuck behind slower riders on the narrow, twisty downhill sections.
Anyone who's been mountain biking with me will be familiar with my graceful, elegant style as man and bike skim effortlessly over the ground in perfect harmony.
Towards the end of the race I was looking even more ragged than usual. Nose diving over the drop offs, bouncing off roots in to the brambles, bumping in to trees.
Although, this was the first race I've done without a single crash.
There's a great atmosphere at these events.
Those of us riding solo had a blue background to our numbers so it was easy to see who was solo and who was part of a team.
Several times on each lap I would get words of encouragement from team riders. I also got several comments on my pink & purple lycra too.
I'll post an update when I get the full results.
Vava, did it look something like this;
If so,it's part of the
National Cycle Network.
I'm a volunteer ranger for part of Route 45 from Highley to Bewdley through the Wyre Forest.
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