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What seems to have been a fairly perfect evening, a few PBs.

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Barry, fresh from his French exploits and his victory in the club TT the previous night, led a large group around the lanes.  The evening was enlivened by MarkT's constant battle with his wheels, spokes and tyres.

France must have been good for Barry as he returned to a victory. There was some close racing between the non-TT specialists.
It was a warm evening with a north-east cross-wind.

On Sunday I raced in the Mud, Sweat & Gears event at Thetford.  I placed 33rd out of 62 in the veterans category.

Merv was chuffed.  He established an East Anglian VTTA Group Age Record for 79 year olds.   His time of 2.13.04 was nearly 10 minutes quicker than last Sunday, and only 2 minutes slower than his age record at 77 of 2.11.13.

Despite many being on tour in France nine riders did make their way to Buntingford this morning.  Some took the faster pace return whilst others remained at the easy pace.

Numbers are picking up as seven took to the streets for an early evening trip.

A not too disastrous day.  Weather reasonable, course reasonable, Merv reasonable, Peter rubbish.  As he is about to celebrate his 79th birthday Merv was timed at 2:22:21.  Peter had no excuses for 2:16:10.

Starting 1 minute ahead of Le Hutch, Peter wanted to see if he could get to 4 minutes before being passed.  At 5mins 7secs he got his answer.  This spurred him onto a course PB of 23:19.  (Hutchinson - 18:10).

In a field of 26 riders, PhilY was 13th in 1:13:39 and Merv was 23rd in 1:22:57.

Alas the Tortoise Tea Room is living up to its name as it cannot cope when a group turns up.  However the ten who went to Parrishes at Thaxted had a good morning out.

The usual annual Wheelers' trip to watch the races is planned for the evening of 9th June. Elite Criterium, Womens' Criterium, Penny Farthing Race, Folding Bike Race and more ...
Watch out for further details closer to the event.

The start of the Weds tours, but only three turned up.  Should be more next week as word gets around.

This was another dank, damp and windy evening west of Hertford. Given the conditions, seven competitors was not too bad.

Nick and Tony continued their rivalry at the top. This time Nick came out ahead.

Nick Cr continued his road-race programme by competing in the ECCA festival event near Saffron Walden ...

On an east\west course with a moderate north easterly wind, Peter scraped by with 24:15 and Merv came in with 26:17.  In perspective, Le Hutch (18:37) beat 2nd place by over 2 minutes.

Lots of riders out, and lots of punctures.  Eleven riders and four punctures on the slow ride made for a lot of standing around in the cold and a long day.  We arrived back at the start in order to wave off the four on the afternoon ride.  The five off roaders experienced five punctures between them and although seven speedsters turned up for the fastie, Mark managed to bypass the puncture problem by breaking a spoke instead.  At least it was something different!  The weather was not especially bad on the day, but the last few days have washed so many flints onto the road.  Bullet proof tyr

Sixteen Wheelers met in the Salisbury Arms in Hertford to warm up prior to curries in Bollywoods. All enjoyed the evening without serious mishap.
Many thanks to Danny for the organisation.

Those of you who wish to combine the word very (as many times as you like) with the words wet and windy (but not cold ) would get an accurate appreciation of the weather conditions.  Despite this, four diehards took part in the easy pacer and fortunately did not suffer from any further problems.

Nick C's latest adventure ... " The race was held in East Hanningfiield, sunny Essex and consisted of a six mile loop which we had to ride seven times. The roads were dry, sunny and hill-free - which made a refreshing change from last week's slog! I still have a lots to learn and was disappointed to miss out on a breakaway which came in 43 secs ahead of me. I rolled over the finishing line 24th out of 60 riders. I really wanted to beat my 18th place last week but all this racing takes time and I'm trying to run before I can walk.