The weather on the drive to the start at Cardington seemed hopefull, with warm overcast conditions with very light drizzle. The promise of clear skys, however did not materialise and the rain arrived early and constant from the start.
5 Laps of the Northill circuit were on the cards and with the conditions as they were I was a but dubious about starting, but after paying to enter and having Richard there (who rides to work all weathers) I did not want to look like a bit of a wimp (a dry one at that).
For the first lap the combination of the spray and rain quickly made sure that the decision to pull out or not on the first lap was almost irrelevant as I could not get any more wet and felt quite good. Stayed towards the back of the bunch at the start, however after seeing how much it strung out, the number of break attempts and the probability of accidents I thought it would be better all round to move up.
Seond lap went reasonable, until my bottle bounced out and slid down the road, clipped by a few wheels on it's way into the gutter. This was a bit of a disaster as a 2hr + ride without any drink would be a bit of a killer and I would not be able to get any points without a drink.
The thoughts that came to mind were to ask for a drink, however that would probably be met with quite a few refusals and me in a more desparate position.
Drinking road wash came to mind, however that was discounted in a few milliseconds when I recieved a load of spray off the road from the bike in front dosed with horse shit, which left me with a couple of options. Part of the strategy was to colect my bottle on the next lap round.
The first option was just to have a go off the front and see what I could do in terms of gap and duration of staying away, which I did shortly afterwards and settled down for 3 min at 460W before dropping back to 390W for the next 4 minutes, staying away for 4.7km before drifting back to the bunch. What I was thinking about was creating a bit of confusion by breaking off the front and then pulling out, but I did the break at the wrong point in the loop to collect my bottle. Would have been quite funny though, although Im not sure how it would have been taken by some. I was picturing the thought of the bunch on a perpetual chase for the next 2 laps.
After being cought I stayed close to the front and rode along, until we came closer to the bottle drop and then drifted back in the bunch before stopping, turning arund and collecting the now empty bottle.
Arriving back at the start I felt a little dissapointed about the bottle drop and the weather, although the weather was not as bad in some ways as it at least kept me cooler, even if I could not see a thing out of my glasses.
Before the bottle colection :
Duration 1h 14m
Power : 309W (357W norm)
TSS : 129 / IF 1.02 / VI 1.16
Altitude : sensor blocked with water....
Speed : 39kph
Power averae : 5min 441W / 10min 401W / 20min 364W
Conclusion : Would have finished with the bunch (possible points as the hill finishe was long enough to suit me better), must get a different water bottle that will not bounce out of it's holder.
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