
…
Did you enjoy that?
No, not really, my race actually lasted 29 mins 11 seconds but more of that later…
It was a Thursday evening so, yes, after a week of warm sunshine it was raining, dull and cold. A thin field (literally and figuratively) were at the Village Hall where all Enville races will definitely now start from, unless it’s at the airport. Salad dodgers, yours truly excepted, were notable by their absence for what is a climbiest of courses used by the league ascending the mighty Mt MoFo four times. I guess the prospect of the race being postponed by road works and the lousy bloody weather put a few off making the trip too. Last time the organisers had to cope with road works it meant the Six Ashes climb was avoided, this time, although the course had to be altered, the climb was very definitely in, it just meant the descent was through the rather unimaginatively titled Four Ashes. Presumably if you looked carefully enough, you'd find One Ash, Eight Ashes and Twelve Ashes somewhere around too...

On the second lap of four, we were greeted by an irate farmer who was standing in the road trying to ask each rider if it was his car parked partially blocking his farm gate. Even with limited rider numbers he was never going to be able to ask each and every one of us, but fair effort for giving it a go and top marks for frantic arm waving skills. He joined his Ferrari driving mate in this evening’s ‘angry man’ competition. In fact he became so angry he flagged down Commissaire Watts and removed the wing mirror from his Mini – I'm really looking forward to when Mr Angry Farmer discovers Commissaire Watts is actually Sargeant Watts of the West Midlands Constabulary in the real world.

The scratch group contained a number of the NFTO team, race leader Dave Starkey (Freds) and a good number of young bucks ready to shred the unsuspecting earlier group riders up Mt MoFo. It’s pretty standard for this course but riders were getting blown out pretty quickly and G 3/4 were picking up stragglers even on the first lap.
This week, big big BIG thanks to the organisers for getting this race on. Last minute course alterations, HQ changes, irate farmers, crazy drivers, lead car wreckers - all in a days work for the guys. They put a huge amount of effort and soak up a massive amount of grief just so we can race our bikes safely. Mike, Dave, Cheryl, Ian, Mark and the rest - you're all heroes. Thanks.