MERIDA BRASS MONKEYS WINTER ENDURO ROUND 1  

Owing to a Woeful turn out (Nil) from the Southern Softies it was left to the West Country riders, well me, to hold up the RN round 1 of the Army Cycling Union hosted third annual winter Enduro Series.  

Deepcut/Porridgepot Hill is one of my favourite "flat" venues with plenty of short climbs and sinewy flowing single track.   In preparation for a return to the European Solo Champs in Apr I opted for the Four hour event which kicked off at 10:30.    

Under blue sky and an annoyingly low sun, many of the "usual suspects" could be seen gathering for the mass start, and with military like precision, well the Army Cycling Union were hosting, the race got underway a little after 10:30 to collective bleeps of various Garmins and other GPS based performance monitors. 

I won't bore you with a turn by turn, lap by lap account, but I was doing all right settling into my pre-planned race strategy when I got a puncture on my third lap.  Spare tube - check, tyre levers - nope, Gas inflator - nope, manual pump - check, so all was not lost although it did take 20 mins to change the tube and then pump sufficient air in it to make it round the lap.  Still some lessons identified - make sure you don't leave all the tools on the spare bike and getting a tube stuck in with sealant out of a tyre isn't an easy task.  Anyway the lost time meant that I wasn't going to get a sixth lap in so just after the 14:30 cut off I completed my last lap finishing somewhere in the early forties.   

An excellent event well organised with cracking weather, what more could you want for £20.   

If anyone is interested to giving round two a go Dec 18 at Tunnel Hill drop me line via the website.     Rob Smith