900 mph vertical take off take 2 .

Saturday just gone and the mighty NB is looking for a rematch from last saturdays ball breaker when he was carrying an injury. It was suggested by some that he engineered a ride with more climbing in it than a ride with a lot of climbing in it. 7500 feet in 65 miles .Up the Gwaun valley. I’m no climber . Which is weird as i weigh 10 and half stone soaking wet .But cant get the power up to match the bursts of the better climbers . I like (yet another comfortable truth)to think i’m a froomy. I sit there and grind the power out in a linear fashion all the way up the climb. I’m just as charismatic in real life as well. So .By the time the ride had come around i had talked myself out of it. Especially when i saw the team going. The Mighty NB, James Pepperami shaw , Ollie the hammer Simon, shane escobar , ross the dark horse mcnally and Gethin the road runner whatever Gethins second name is.Only a few of the top dogs in Pembs not there. So its an ego trip . All guns blazing drop or be dropped.

I bottled it . On the ride over i had convinced myself my legs werent feeling great and had decided to go on the zone 2 ride with Fab ,Nigel ,Slacky and Jess.

True to form as soon as everyone rocked up i caved in again and ended up going out with the big dogs. It wasnt too long before the barking started. If i’m being honest and i do like to be honest my legs werent feeling as good as they did the sat before.The first few climbs Gethin stretched his legs .He can climb and pepperami went with him. I knowing it was going to be long day didnt respond and caught them back on the descents. Coming down cresselly hill a lorry over took and it took everything i had to stop myself jumping on the back and going with him. The roads were wet and the bottom corner can be taken at full speed . Didnt go .Must be getting cautious in my formative years. We rolled on to canaston and i was taking some turns on the front but the power just wasnt there compared to last week.Had a good climb out of wiston a long gradual climb that suits me more but over cooked it and hadnt recovered by the end of the descent. It started to tell on the Rose bush climb where i got dropped. Only by a 100 metres or so. But the signs were there. Blasted the descent then carried on down into the Gwaun Valley. The valley itself is flat curiously enough . I did have an advantage on the tt bike on the front on the tri bars and tested the water along the valley. The line went taught. We dropped Shauny and brazier but not by much . was holding on then as we climbed out of the valley. Then it was my turn. I hit the front and the line went tighter. All the way down to Maencolog first 5 miles came and went in 9.39 .Going through the village i pulled another cheeky manoverve over taking a car that left plenty of millimetres either side of my bars to get through.It was, i have to be honest, cos i like being honest a little tighter than i thought it was going to be. The car driver shit himself. James decided not to follow and i broke away. We regrouped and off we went again No one coming for a turn in the front. The group had split. It was me, Gethin,James , Escobar and NB. Ollie was out on a recovery ride after IM uk last week

Then we started to climb again. I was losing ground on the longer climbs but was holding my own overall for the most part. I was dropped by 200 m on the climb out of narbeth but did a sneaky little totally illegal maneuver at the bottom of the hill as we turnred right across the traffic that put me in the lead. Then we bimbled home. Not before escobar put himself in the hedge at redberth. The group split i rode back with NB to penally and got an extra 10 or so miles in .80 all told . normalised power 251 watts. Pleased with that.