This was going to be the first race Gray and myself had done for 6 years and Mikes first ever. I drove Gray and Myself up to Ashton Court and much to our suprise Mike said he was riding up and would meet us there! (nutter --- riding 9 miles racing then riding back!). We arrived with plenty of time to spare and re-built our bikes and headed off to the registration tent. After picking up our race numbers and standing about clocking all the very expensive bits off kit clicking about we both started to feel really nervous -- in fact it's safe to say more than vervous - physically sick! We meandered over to the start line 10 minutes before the start time and watched the sport boys 5-4-3-2 psssssssss as one riders rear tyre decided to spontaneously combust - Not a happy bunny his very nice bike was hurled over the fence! ooohhhhh.
This was it on the start line (all 3 of us at the back line) And we're off. The first lap (off 4) was a killer but after that I settled down and just rode it at my own pace. After 1h 15minutes I finished and came 12th which I was very happy with. The winner of our category was a semi-professional rider and his time was 1h 5min.
I really enjoyed the day and it was lovely having my Wife and daughter there to cheer me on. I have the racing bug now and would really love to do the Schwinn 100 (Konabigpack now) as my next event.
To see the full results goto the SAMS website our racing names were Matthew Godfrey, Grahame Davidson and Mike Chriswick (all in the Novice category)