2021.11 by
Alf Williams, on Flickr
A bit of a wet and gloomy night, not much more than a steady drizzle really, but mercifully calm and there were some excellent rides last night. Indeed, I'll stick my neck out and say that almost no one was truly disappointed with their ride and a select few were chuffed - a lovely word that so why not use it in conversation at work today?
Alan Griffiths got us underway and thankfully he knows the course now and took a useful slice off his PB. Emma Davies went back by just one second probably due to having waterlogged socks that needed wringing out whilst Matt Jones chipped a useful 21 seconds off his PB and now knows the answer to his quest for a faster time which can be summarised as, "Press on the pedals harder". Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are all nodding in agreement. Our first 2-up of the season, Hollie and Ffion, couldn't quite catch Matt but did a good ride based on Hollie's solo time from last week.
We then sent off three riders who needed to get back early because of the light and Clinton Evans was first back and by a long chalk to finish 4th on the night and trimmed a few seconds off his PB and all this despite an unfortunate mishap out on the course. An understandably cautious Bill Gannon went back a bit this week but will almost certainly get a PB on this course before June is out whilst John Deeley was a bit more of his old self (that sounds wrong but you know what I mean) to mangle his time from last week.
Paul Naysmith made his 2021 club event debut and did really well to record 39:16 and now has an obvious target for next week. It was nice to welcome a new second-claim member and Dan O'Connor (RAS Endurance) really enjoyed the course and took 5th place with an impressive 33:11 which is probably too good to take the midfield win. We then had two friendly battles with Mike Broadbent besting (beasting?) Les Thomas by 29 seconds to take the midfield win whilst Graham Rogerson just pipped the late Karl Rees by 4 seconds to take the road bike win. Excellent stuff!
Mike Hall slipped a bit from last week but finished 3rd and we wish Mike all the best in the West Wales 100 on Sunday. Things have been ever so close up at the sharp end and this pattern has continued albeit with a reversal of fortune from last week with Nicky Morgan finishing 2nd with a 29:44 and Neil Seaward taking the win with a 29:35 which I guess is the course record... for now! Alfie's 'man of the match' therefore goes to Neil Seaward - well done mate.
Many thanks to Dai Triggs for time-keeping and also to Gareth Davies for going down to the turn.
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"The most important thing in life is not to have the most, but to need the least.” Plato (my favourite Disney character).
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Alfie on Fri Jun 11, 2021 5:04 pm. »