A nice ride, lovely route. First 50k or so into a headwind but with a small group containing a few Sudbury riders amongst others. Pete Turnbull joined us halfway to the first control. We got caught in a hailstorm which was painfull! A quick stop for tea and then off again, this time with a slightly bigger group. The group split after a while and I found myself with Pete Turnbull and a couple of other chaps for the remainder of the ride into the second control, aided by a decent tailwind.
A quick couepl of sarnies and a pint of orange squash and we were off again. The chaps I was riding with before set about mending a puncture so I set of with FidgetBuzz for the next section. Was good to see him again and we had a good chat (don't think we'd seen each other since LEL) and made decent progress, again with the wind. About 50k in, I had a little bit of a bad patch on a long drag and FidgetBuzz opened up a gap of about 100m on me. Sod's Law quickly ensued and he carried where the route went left. I shouted but with the wind, he didn't hear me. I didn't have the energy to chase him down, and figured his GPS was routing him anyway so he'd probably get back on route shortly.
I struggled on until Ingatestone where I had a 20min stop for a sarnie. I figured I may see Mr Buzz appear at the crossroads but, despite a few others going past, I didn't see him. I carried on and, just before the last info, I turned back into the full force of the wind. I wasn't hideous, but enough to make the last 30k a struggle.
Got back to the control and was pleasantly suprised to find my time was 9hrs 50mins. My fastest 200 (I've ridden 200k faster but as part of a longer event).
Anwyay, many thanks to Keiron for allowing my EOL and for a great route. And to Bloomers for mailing me the his GPX for reference.
