Fools_in_the_Cold

Fools in the April Cold

Monday 1st April

Alfie Shaw and I had hoped to top and tail the Easter Weekend with the Buxton Mountain Time Trial on Friday, and the Abbotsford Park 10 on Monday. Sadly, the Buxton event was cancelled because of snow, leaving us with just the 10-miler on the Chelford-Knutsford course.

Running the event relatively late in the afternoon meant that the notorious Chelford Island roundabout was relatively free of traffic - a good decision by the organisers. On the day therefore, our only impediment was a rising, bitter East-North-Easterly wind. Riders were mostly blown out to Knutsford but had a real icy struggle back - according to the Met Office, the windchill gave us the effect of competing at zero degrees. They weren't wrong, stripping down to racing layers was a most unpleasant experience.

Alfie had hoped for a shortish 27-minute ride but on the day settled for 28:07, still a long way up on this time last year, and I was pleased enough with 25:38. The event was headlined with the appearance of Olympian, Joanne Rowsell MBE who passed both of us, pedalling very smoothly, making light of the conditions. Jo took 6th place overall with 22:16, similar to her ride two days earlier in the North Lancs event on the Garstang course. Jo is using local time trials to sharpen up for the Fleche-Wallonne classic in Belgium in a couple of weeks - we wish her well.

 Event winner, and winner of many events in the Manchester area, was once again Simon Bridge, Manchester Wheelers with a comfortable 20:44. 

Richard Cary 01/04/13

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