….and the weather was biblical

Damp

I’ve done a fair few crits now, but this was completely different. And very very wet. Punctured with a lap to go, as did many others – out of 50 starters, 18 finished. Total respect for the bloke (Dominic) who turned up on an ’83 De Rosa with period kit (including friction downtube shifters) and got 5th. I was at the other end of the spectrum, having just stuck my new Reynolds wheels in the Storck.

Road racing is awesome. Proper awesome.

That table could do with a tidy and a wipe

….and the weather was biblical

as are your curtains.

Was that a Vets race? Recognise a couple of the Cambridge CC riders…..

I can’t take credit for either the curtains or the table – the race was in Suffolk so stayed at my parents. To be fair, I think those curtains were probably about when the Bible was going to press…

Was that a Vets race?

No, it was the Norwich 2/3/4 although there were quite a few Vets in it.

Not many young looking people in the pack (that I could see from those photos).

NB Credit to the photographer for being out in that weather – not sure I’d trust how waterproof my kit is in that sort of rain!

My first race on that course was a farce – drove all the way there from Cambridge then ran over some glass in the neutral zone at the start of the race and trashed the tyre / tube 🙁

Not many young looking people in the pack

Its a fair point. It struck me how many older riders there were compared to juniors. With the exception of a couple (eg. a certain Elmy rider), I reckon I was probably one of the youngest at 32. Makes me wonder if its a bit of a rich mans sport – bar the chap on the De Rosa, pretty much everyone was on some sort of Super Bling bike. I reckon half the UK’s supply of Enve wheels were there. Plus, they’re not cheap to enter, a pain to get to and you need a fair bit of support I suppose.

That said, the event was excellent, the marshalling really good (considering the dire conditions) and I only saw a couple of crashes. Bit of a change from the smashfest that was Trinity park last Wednesday!