It’s a rare day when those three letters are next to my name on a results sheet. A combination of stubbornness along with using decent kit has seen me finish pretty much everything I’ve started. Today’s West London Combine 50 on the H50/4 (A413) put an end to that. 64k of 80k done and my front tyre makes a sound like broken glass and rapidly turns into a very wobbly, very flat thing. Arse. ‘Luckily’ I was quite near the HQ in Great Missenden so walked back. Unfortunately I was wearing my new skinsuit which doesn’t have room for my phone and I’d not bothered to take keys so I had to wait for Mal and Scherrit to realise and return. They got a bit of a fright when I didn’t turn up but coppers and ambos went past. Whoops.

The new Castelli aero gloves and Assos skinsuit (modified by Mal with number loops) worked well as did the Bell Javelin helmet – no fogging and didn’t end up covered in sweat like my sunglasses usually do.

Everyone said I looked fast and a quick calculation reveals I’d have PB’d pretty much for sure but it wasn’t actually a good race for me. Power was all over the place and my shoes were too tight so my left foot went numb again. I think the different style bars on the new bike need further adjustment as I’m sliding forward on them when getting low.

Luckily I had another front wheel for training on in the car so as punishment for my tyre’s failure I tacked on a bunch of hours training after the event and it was actually mostly dry. Yay.