Sunday’s Dragon ride went ahead as planned – and I completed it in something under 7 hours – which should be a Silver – the 6:25 for a gold at my age is more than a challenge. The day started with the queue for the car park, even arriving at 07:15 at M4 J35, I didn’t get to the car park until 07:45! Still , little in the way of set-up time, and we were off to the start. We got away at 08:32 to rousing music, in bunches of 100 (it’s not a closed road event, so there has to be some allowance for the other road users). I started off trying to ride with Jon, but our pace was different, so we ended up separating. At the top of the first climb, I stopped & waited for him, eventually giving up as I didn’t see him come through. Lo and Behold, on the next climb I caught him up. Again our pace was different so we separated and went on at our own pace. No major issues with any of the climbs, and the tailwind for the last 20Km back to the finish was welcome. When the results are posted, it should show me having done 6:52 or so (I think). Jon came in trailing me by ten minutes or so. Not shabby for a beginner…
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