Stowmarket Reliability Trial

February 18, 2008

Stowmarket Reliability Trial(63miles/100km) 17th Feb
So on to the third RT of the year. Stowmarket & District CC’s event is held, interestingly enough, in Needham Market. Terry and I travelled out together for this. The fun of the Wivenhoe event was quickly forgotten as the main field set off at an alarming pace – whilst I was still in the toilet. Terry, recently returning from a training camp in the Med, suffered an adverse reaction to the cold of the Suffolk roads and despite catching the back group, we were almost immediately riding on our own. Terry was clearly unhappy so we agreed to separate. By Hitchin (again) I was on my own (again) in a long and largely fruitless pursuit of the rest of the field. Only passing a few stragglers (some of who’d stopped for a leisurely chat with Len who was also passing by, distributing DVDs!), I rode on alone but at least I was on some unfamiliar roads. As I turned onto the Shotley peninsular though this worked against me as I soon lost the route. But on the upside this did lead me to pull out in front of a small group of guys who helped me find the way back onto the route. We rode together for a bit but by the time I was back on familiar roads we’d split into three with me in the middle, and I slogged back to Needham Market alone again. Thinking I’d sold myself short by getting lost I was pleased when the clocked ticked over 100km as I pulled into the car park after 3.5 hours. Over an hour behind the front runners but still in time to get a tea and a piece of cake. Despite everything though, I’d enjoyed the outing. It was a good training ride – thanks to all concerned at S&DCC.

So what’s next? Oh yes, I’ve got the next Spoco 10 on Saturday and it’s the Colchester Rovers Reliability Trial on Sunday. I must be mad!