10 minutes before the off my seat post slipped down in the seat tube, so I got the allen keys out to tighten the clamp and guess what? The bolt sheared in the clamp due to the stainless bolt seizing in the ali clamp.

I shot back up to the HQ and a few guys tried the clamps off their spare bikes but to no avail, none fitted my oversied tubing:-(

I then had a quick decision to make, sit around for 2 hours for my lift (Andy) to come back or to ride with a loose seat post with the saddle sat right on my top tube!! I chose the latter, there was no way I was getting up at 4:30 to sit in a car park in Boroughbridge for 2 hours.

Full of fury I flew down to the start and got there with exactly a minute to spare and then shot off at a “10″ pace, due to the adreniline coursing thru my veins.

I quickly slowed when it all wore off though and fought into a headwind and the steady incline on the outward leg. I had to get out of the saddle on every uphill section as I couldn’t get any power at all.

At the turn Andy took me for 3 minutes which I was pretty happy with and then we had the wind on our backs for large sections of the return leg. This was also slighlty down hill and considering i was sat more than 3 inches lower was knocking out speeds in excess of 35 MPH in sections. This was encouraging as I overtook about 7 riders and started to feel pretty happy.

I began to get pain in my left thigh in the last 10 miles(which was nice!) but managed to just hold off my minute man recording 2:11:12.

Seriously need to do another 50 ASAP to excorcise the demons!

Andy won the YCF handicap by a handsome margin and pocketed £40 in the process but Paul just pipped him for the Club championship by 16 seconds.