>A cool evening – leg warmers weather. I’d trained earlier in the day with the ‘Tuesday Morning Vets’ wearing shorts and that wasn’t a good idea. I’m not sure that double session days suit me at the moment either.
A couple of pics from the vets sessions by Jim McKay:
Tad, John J, Rocco and Tony
Alan, John G, me and Gill
These Tuesday and Friday 10.30am sessions are great fun. They are always friendly and occasionally combative. The banter rarely stops.
The evening race itself was pretty brisk but even-paced (fewer class youths in the field?). The E123s only passed us once. The standard of riding was not too bad. I felt that I was running out of steam towards the end despite it being a short race. I was tailed off on the last lap just as the shouting and arseing about began in earnest.
Race stats: Race distance: 18.22 miles, time: 43:27 (25.2mph average speed). 37 out of 38. Top speed: 31.7mph (on lap 1!). Fastest mile: 2:19 (25.9mph – 5 separate laps), slowest mile: 2:32 (23.7 mph – mile 4). Winner: Tom Lettice (Edinburgh RC)
I’d ridden down to the race, so rushed off afterwards to avoid riding home in the dark. I therefore missed the big crash at the end of the E123 race. 3 or 4 riders were badly injured (punctured lung, collar bones, concussion etc.) and a lot of carbon is heading to the recycling bin. I’ve been increasing the amount of skills work I’ve been doing as a ride leader on Thursday nights – it looks like there’s more work to do.
Lance Woodman 