Just got back from the Schwinn 100.
What a great days racing. Around 840 people set-off with a mass start through Builth
wells. Most of the racing was on MOD land with the terrain varying from wide gravel
dirt roads to long section of single track. It was a bit unerving to ride of bullets
(hopefully used) and motars which were scatered on some parts of the track. There
were a couple of heavy showers towards the end which made the final descent, treacherous
but fun. I gained about 5 places through people falling off on the mud. Luckily I
had a new set of IRC Mud Mads on, which turned out to be superb in the conditions.
I managed to crash at about 15-20mph into a wooden fence 200m from the finish! The
marshals directed us to ride through a building, just before the finish – Cool I
thought, I’ll sprint through the building. What I didn’t realise was that the building
had a nice slippery wooden floor. I just had time to visualise snapping my collar
bone before ploughing into a wooden fence post, followed rapidly by the two riders
behind me. Lucky the only damage was a bit of bruising. One rider wasn’t so fortunate
elsewhere on the course and did break a collarbone.
I finished about 240ish overall and about 70th in masters with a time of around 5:56.
The winner finished in an amazing 3:55. When I left the course people were still
coming in at over 8:30 hours. I think I was the only singlespeeder so I could claim
being first in that cat. I’d recommend the race to anyone thinking about it next
year.
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