Revised results for 15th September 2013 - Course: K11/50C Cawston

This was our first attempt to run a club 50 in recent times and we can declare it a qualified success. Riders complimented Mike Bloom on having devized this 'sporting' course. The forecast downpoor never materialised, but the wind strength increased as the temperature dropped. Most riders completed the full course and reported a measured distance of around 50.1 miles. Inevitably some riders accidentally missed out some sections of the course and were only aware when they realised they had recoded less than 50 miles as they passed the finish. Technically these are DNFs, as it would be unfair on the other competitors to include them in the official list. Just so their efforts were not totally wasted, of the three that so far have found they had not completed the full distance here is a rough calculation of what their 50-mile time would have been:

Mike McCann 2-12-51
Gary Howes 2-15-01
Tony Johnson 2-27-22

The clear winner was David Newton who had not expected to ride until the previous evening, while the handicap winner was Anne Portsmouth. In general the handicap results seemed reasonable, considering how they were calculated. Simon Bayliss retired early with a hamstring problem. As often happens in a long event without marshals there were reports of draughting, although the multiple out-and-back legs of the course meant that riders had a good sight of each other most of the time. As this was a pilot event we had previously decided that it would not be included in the points competition, so the invalid rides do not count against. One downside to the event was a police report following a complaint from a motorist on the A45. Given the timing of the complaint we cannot deduce how this occurred as the rider number reported had not even left the start.