Duncton Sunday Sportive

An early start saw me down at Duncton before 8.30 am on Sunday - minus Lawrence my son, who had agreed to complete the short course with me but who had decided that his pit was a better place to be after a late night out. Looking at the course and distance (6o km) before the start I was aiming for a silver result, with the slim chance of gold if I really had a good day.

All started well, tagged on to the back of a group of a dozen riders who were going along at a good pace. The group split after about 15 kms and I embarked on a lonely section of the short course. This included the biggest climb of the day up to the back of the Goodwood racecourse. At the top I missed the small turning and carried on inadvertently onto a semi-professional duathlon circuit. After dropping downhill for about a kilometre I realised my mistake and after a debate with the officials there, had to turn around and ride back up to the top. This cock up cost me about 10 minutes and I spent the next half hour in a bad mood, struggling a bit with a headwind too. With about 15 km to go the course flattened a bit and I picked up the pace to finish in around 2 hours and 22 minutes, well inside the sliver limit but around 9 minutes outside gold.

Quite pleased - well inside the average time of 2 hours 47 minutes and in the top 15, and would have been the top 5 if I had not had the route cock up! Still next time.....