Warwick and back

Last night was Warwick and back, and after winning it last year I was looking forward to it.  It was a nice day, quite warm and windy.  After a short warm up I was soon off and felt like I was flying (because of the tail wind) and I got to the first descent, Warmington hill, I was hoping to do 50 mph down there as normal, but I didn't push hard down there as it's a long time trial so only did 49.2 mph.  And as I got into Gaydon I looked round to see Jon Simpkins had gotten close to me and he was off 2 mins after me!  So I smashed it up the drag and managed to hold him off and as I got to a roundabout I dove round it as fast as I could, using my roadie skills, then I held Jon off until the next roundabout I dove round that one quick too but Jon soon came past me and just trying to keep his pace on the flat was too hard!  As I got to the next roundabout about two cars held me up as I was catching Justin, and going round the roundabout was slower than I would like but I got a small rest.  After this I caught my first two people of the night and hunting down my 3rd!  As I got to the roundabout to turn going down the hill a big artic lorry was sat right behind me down this hill (maybe trying to get a tow from me?) but very dangerous on his part and just another sh*t driver on the road.  Anyway I dived round the roundabout as fast as I could to get away from him.

I hit lap on my garmin and then it was time to focus and smash it on the way back!  I had a few Alice cooper songs in my head as I had been listening to him throughout the day.  And as I came back it was a head wind and uphill so I knew it was going to be hard but I kept going and was catching people and as I got back to Gaydon I was in the red with two big hills to get up.  However I was catching my dad and the first rider off, but there was a big horse and cart in the road and as the old man went past I was still flying because it was down hill and I went on the other side of the road got round it and past two more people to go on my list.  the first of the big hill was "10% hill" I got up that ok and then back into TT mode and then hit Warmington hill and I had to just sit down and spin my 42 25 up there I got out of the saddle of the steep bit but stayed seated for most of it.  Once finally over the top I got into the big ring again and just powered it all the way back to the finish and did a time of 1:12:33 for 3rd place.  I thought I had beaten the clubs record but I was 8 seconds off it (not that I'm a member anymore).  But Luke Souter came though to beat me by 10 seconds this year and got the record by two seconds so he was doing a good ride!

Thanks for reading
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