Only 6 hardy racers started the 50 this time. Dave Jones would have made it 7 but hadn't checked his e-mail and was waiting for a postal notification (which never came). When he saw how windy it was outside he was probably quite pleased.
Being a 2 lap course the race was a game of 2 halves. James Dear sped round the first lap in 59m00s with Lawrence Wintergold in hot pursuit (59m11s). The second half is flatter because it misses out Tollgate Hill, but the fatigue of racing 50 miles starts to creep in and the times drift off. James' second lap was 60m27s, but Loz in his new 'Dear-stalker' hat manged 60m18s, just failing to catch James. However he did have a mechanical incident to blame for it when his chain got jammed and he had to remove the rear wheel to fix it.
Further down the field Dave Lashbrook and Rob Hoodless were doing battle. Dave's first lap was 64m38s to Rob's 64m45s. Dave is clearly recovering his fitness properly now because although he lost time on his second lap (66m48s) he had more in the tank then Rob who struggled and faded (68m10s) leaving Dave a clear 90 seconds ahead at the finish.
Remarkably there was another close battle going on between Steve Alden and Rachel Baker. First lap times were very close with Rachel edging it. She was 69m30s to Steve's 69m42s. Because Rachel started 9 minutes ahead Steve could see he was in grave danger of being 'chicked' and redoubled his effort on the second lap. He had the most consistent times of the day doing the second lap just 17 seconds slower than the first in 69m59s while Rachel just faded towards the end (71m40s) giving Steve the advantage by about 90 seconds. Rachel was the only one to do a PB though, whilst all the others were several minutes down.
MEN winner 1h45m20s !!
James Dear 1.59.27 13.41% 10points
Loz Wintergold 1.59.29 13.44 9
Dave Lashbrook 2.11.26 24.78 8
Rob Hoodless 2.12.55 26.19 7
Steve Alden 2.19.41 32.61 6
WOMEN winner 2h11m45s
Rachel Baker 2.21.10 7.15% 10pts
Author: Steve Alden