Maindy Centre, Crown Way, Cardiff, CF14 3AJ
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Four cows, two punctures and a Dragon Trophy!

Four cows, two punctures and a Dragon Trophy!

It was an odd day…
Everything I normally do in my morning routine I either didn’t do, or did arse backwards.
I put my socks on wrong foot first (first time ever. its ALWAYS right foot first subconsciously ).
I got on the turbo trainer from the left instead of from the right…

The weather for the final round of the Celtic TT Series was bleak, not dreadful or the worst I’ve TT’d in, but bleak.
However, the mountain top fire signals had been lit many weeks previous and the messengers on horse back had been run ragged to send out the call to all Ajax far and wide to answer the call to help the club slay a Dragon.

The call was heard!
Many red, white and blue were in attendance to answer the call and give their all for roughly 20-30 minutes of battle.

“It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing… such a little thing…”

#cough, ok enough of the Lord of the Rings

Sunday was the final round of the Celtic TT series. The weather was bleak but not awful, the wind was as low as it could be for Wales and the rain didnt come down anywhere near as hard as the forecasted yellow alert implied it might.
Helen Jones punctured as soon as she left the car park and a fellow tester in the car park came to the rescue with a spare front wheel.
Helen Jones then, along with a few other riders had to suffer the indignity of having to stop on the race course while a large (herd?) of cows decided to meander from one field, across the road and then into the adjacent field in their own sweet time!!

I went off the start well (albeit with the typical loss of form as the season is almost done) and was hitting PR’s on the strava segments on the way out.
Sadly the rain had loosed every tiny bit of grit, wood, detritus in the road and about 1 mile from the turn onto the A40, the tiniest sliver of wood forced me to abandon with a front wheel puncture and a 10 minute walk in cleats to the turn where no marshall was waiting and then a 30-40 minute wait in the rain until my knight in shining lycra, David Medhurst came to my resuce and picked me up \o/

However, everyone else managed to get around the course and put invaluable points on the board for the club:
https://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/race-results/19139#anchor

5DavidMedhurstMaleSenior21:37138
10NiallFosterMaleVet22:18123
15TobyHopperMaleSenior23:32108
18RobJonesMaleVet23:5799
33KevinLavelleMaleVet26:1454
37Stephen Davies MaleVet27:0042
38IanLlewelynMaleVet27:0739
39HaydnGriffithsMaleVet27:3836
41HelenPriestFemaleVet28:5330
43SuzannahMinnsFemaleVet28:5424
45ChrisJamesMaleVet29:0918
47BernardBrownMaleVet30:1512
48NiaJamesFemaleVet30:489
DNFLeonEvansMaleVet
0

We had enough riders and enough points that we held or slim advantage over Bynea and came away 2019 Celtic TT Series Team Winners to win back the gorgeous Dragon Trophy!!

Course records fell on the same day with Michelle Lee posting from PDQ Cycling posting a 22:50, Chris Gibbard from Bynea breaking the mens course record with a 19:53, only to be beaten 40 seconds later by the eventual winner David Griffiths with a new new course record of 19:41!

Thank You!
To every Ajax rider who answered the call and raced, from me personally, thank you so much, we wouldn’t have won the trophy without you!!
If you want to take part in more rounds next season then by all means please sign up!! Tom and I could really use the help!! 😀

Thank you once again!
Leon.