Imperial Winter Series - Saturday 5th December

At last - racing again in the Imperial Winter series run by the terrific Doug and Lucy Collins.  Met up with my teammates Andy and Paul, the former a first time 4th cat and the latter a seasoned 3rd.  I got a puncture warming up which I noticed at the start line at 1pm (the start time).  I asked Doug for a spare wheel but he told me I had time to change my tube.  Well obviously he doesn't know just how slow I am.  By the time I got back to the car, fixed the punture and returned to the circuit they had all started.  The Commissaire kindly let me join a lap late; well that is one way of getting to the front early on.  As my club coach noted I can stay near the front for the first half of the race but seem to lose this ability later on.  For me it all fell apart a bit as the 3rd cats went by as it took for ever and for that period it was impossible to pull out and move back towards the front.  I came in at the back of the bunch as did Andy (brilliant, for my first few races I was lapped).  We hung around long enough to see Paul come in in the rear portion of his bunch.
For a full account of this (and many other) races see Lance Woodman's blog.
Average Speed 24 mph.