How much fun was that? I haven't done a race like this before (the 24 hour Mont doesn't really count - it was more an endurance than sprint event) and it turned out to be tough. Maybe this was down to the course and heat? Didn't the elites manage 14 laps? Results are in and Solo male winner did 13 laps. Now wait a sec, these boys normally do 100Km in 4 hours so to do only 130Km in 8 must say something about the conditions!

Hard as it was, fantastic day out and loads of fun. There was pain, particularly from cramps in the thighs which normally never happens to me - although calf muscles sometimes complain. A few hard, sprint laps turned out to be a completely different kind of punishment to enduro events. I found that coming in after pushing for a lap left one exhausted, but because it's only been 10Ks, well, the exhaustion soon subsided and everything was good.

It was also very nice that we (Cupcake, Junkie and I) ended up doing 4 laps each. This was just under 3 hours riding for me, I suspect Junkie rode maybe 5-10 mins a lap faster average (mine wasn't helped by those cramps in the final lap which dragged the average time down badly) and Cupcake probably could have done so if it wasn't for his puncture. Yeah, so although I was going to the slowest Slow Joe, wasn't that much off the pace.