What a Blast

Got to St. Albans just after lunch with Alex and set up camp in perfect weather, plenty of others were turning up also and it wasn't long before we did some carbo loading, I was quite happy with last years race time of 5h 27m (1 flat) so I didn't want to change too much.

Went to bed about 11:20 for a rather restless 3 1/2 hours sleep and up at 5am keen to get started, it was so much nicer without the freezing temps of last year.

My goal this year was an optimistic sub 5 hours but expected around 5h 10m, I started in the 1st group after the elites. The pace was fast and we did the 1st 10km in 18:03, average speed was 33.2km. Alex and I rode together for about the first 20km but I passed him around 35km in when he suffered a flat tyre.

I was worried I may have been cooking myself as my ave heart rate was over 170bpm but didn't want to back off as a sub 5 hour time was looking possible.

Many people commented on the scenery, but I never saw it as the raceface was firmly fixed on the terrain, it's the 1st time I've taken the Pivot over the Great North road and was grinning from ear to ear launching off the rocks, time went fast in this section as you need to stay totally focused or it's going to hurt.

I rode the bridge and picked up the treasured band, I was starting to tire heading up the next big climb and slipped past steve01 at the last feed station but he soon passed me. On the last few kms to the finish I formed a little team of 3 and we smashed ourselves to the finish line and got my heart rate up to 189bpm in that last bit with an average for the race of 171, not bad for an oldie.
I didn't go under 5 hours this time but stoked with 5:02
John.