BUSA 10TT
A depleted Nottingham team did themselves proud at the BUSA 10 Mile TT in windy and rainy Cambridge.
Weakened by the no-shows of Doug the whippet Forrester, and two hardcore triathletes who admitted to having been scared off by the weather, the team was down to the hardcore. Even so, there were seven Nottingham representatives, which led to a top five team finish.
While lesser teams put a little more air into their tyres and made sure their disk wheels were spinning smoothly, our athletes screwed on tri-bars for the first time and made sure they could ride on them without toppling over, while Phil paraded about on his super-deluxe mountain bike single-speed. There was a slight sense of mockery in the air, but as we peeled off our tracksuits to reveal our lovely shiny NUCC kit, that feeling was smashed into smithereens and replaced by an overwhelming sense of awe. We meant business.
Undeterred by the seeming professionalism of the other riders, we put on a good show, with Luke leading the way with a pretty impressive 24.13, followed by Barry, Gareth, Rich, Nick, Chow and Phil. Phils performance was particularly impressive, and may well have been the quickest on a MTB. Indeed, on a road bike we can only imagine what stunning time he may have clocked.
However, the bike race was mightily overshadowed by the car race home that ensued. Andy, at the wheel of the van, took on Gareth, in his super powerful Nova. After a heated conservation shouted out of the windows of the respective vehicles while zooming along the motorway, Phil proceeded to jump out of the van and stick Gareths windscreen wipers up at the next traffic lights. This caused Gareth to have to leap out of the car to put them down again before the lights changed. Needless to say, Gareths lightening quick reactions allowed him time to do this before accelerating away to victory.
We take our bike racing seriously, but when it comes to windscreen wipers, we will not be beat.