Round 3 Yorkshire Points: Tong

After a somewhat deflating race last weekend Tong proved to be the perfect antidote. Held at Home Farm the course had a great mix of fast grass and technical woodland. Added to this I had new toys to play with as my Major Tom wheelset from Strada Wheels had arrived earlier in the week and a Typhoon/SSC combo had been glued up ready to roll (review to follow after a few more races) but a word to the wise don't use Fabsil Seam Sealant to 'proof' your tub side walls it flakes off like sunburnt skin :-/

After last weeks debacle I wasn't sure where I stood and apparently missed the call up to the gridded start, later being told I was 20th 'last' to be called. A slowish start from about third row was not a huge problem as the course allowed plenty of room to make up places either through fitness or technique. I found I was making time up through the barriers and through the steep wooded section, @greatrock's skills lessons paying off 'chin up'! On the fast grass sections I definitely lacked true CX speed - time for some short sharp intervals after the Three Peaks. A botched dismount with a foot sticking in the pedal coming into the barriers cost places and time especially as I couldn't immediately see the problem jamming the rear wheel (QR had slipped) but other than that it was a trouble free race.

Mr Wagget had a less succesfull time and a couple of dropped chain incidents let Nick E riding in Dirt Wheels colours (splitter! ;-) get ahead of him this time. John P was looking after daughter Izzy and doing sterling supporter duty whilst @Hanglebad and sister Clunis scurried about supporting and getting the photos. Jo apparently heard the event organiser saying "never again" which would be a great shame as it was a great course and event. As we finished we met @FingersK looking resplendent in his new Velocake skinsuit but we had to leave before the senior race and could only imagine the fun that the torrential downpour visited upon them! We experienced it in the warm and dry of the car driving back through Shiply ;-> All photos are now up on Flickr (see sidebar) and I'm just waiting for the results to see if things truely did improve on last week...