Dragon ride

While the rest of us were getting dizzy round the Fifeld circuit, Andrew Payne and Vincent Taylor travelled to South Wales to take part in this year's Dragon Ride. They had both entered the 200km ride, but due to weather conditions while crossing the river Severn had serious discussions about opting for the short 135km route. However on arrival at Bridgend conditions were dry, if a little cold (and better than the rain we had here most of that morning) so they set off in the second wave of riders around 8.05am on the long route as planned.

Despite the best intentions to stay together they quickly got separated. Once the ride settle down Andrew spent most of his time in small groups varying in size from 2 to 9 riders taking turns on the front to ensure a reasonable pace was maintained on the flatter parts of the route. He was generally happy with his performance on the ascents, but lost any gains on the descents; his max speed was around 35mph but others had reached nearly 50. Vincent suffered with a puncture and various small aches which slowed his overall progress.

915 riders set out on the longer ride with 895 finishing.

Place	Name	Total Time	Club
1	Adrian Lee	05:59:57
212	Andrew Payne	07:09:04	Maidenhead CC
871	Vincent Taylor	09:41:03	Maidenhead CC
895	Matthew Burns	10:26:16