Dunstable RC Open 10

So last Saturday I was on the super fast F11/10 course down on the A41 near Aston Clinton. It's an hour's drive but it seemed worth it to have a go at getting under 22 minutes, which was my main goal. I was hoping that something nearer 21:40 could be doable with favourable conditions. The course is fast as it is basically two long flat sections of the A41 with a long downhill in the middle that you don't have to go back up, so a dream of a course. As expected though, the weather conditions were not too favourable. It was trying to rain as I pulled into the school car park and the air temperature was well down at about 15 degrees. Worse than that, the wind was steadily picking up and with it being a north-easterly it would provide a head/crosswind for most of the long leg between the two turns. Bah...

Anyway, I still felt pretty good so after a warm up on the turbo and finding the start I was feeling confident that I should pb. The start is on the slip road that joins the A41 and it is a nice fast downwards ramp and as I headed along to the first turn I was bumping along at around 29-30 mph with a tail wind. very cool! The first turn was quite complicated and relatively slow but very well marshalled to send me back up the dual carriageway and straight into the wind. So again, it was just a process of hunkering down but after a mile or so along here I could feel myself red lining. Even the downhill didn't offer much respite. I had bn told that I would probably end up spinning out here but I was still mashing the cranks pretty hard even here. The end turn was a lot simpler although I had to slow up for traffic and then it was the final sprint, if tou can call it that to the finish, another mile or so away.

I tend not to look at my Garmin too much but as I was within 20 metres of the chequered board I couldn't resist a peek and saw 21:54! I was desperate to get under 22 and I knew I had a few seconds in hand as I always start the Garmin as the timekeeper counts down the last 5 seconds. I just squeaked it with 21:58. Really pleased to get under 22 but was hoping for a bit more. The thing with tting is, there's always next time.