3 Nov 2007

Day 4

- 11:00 30 May 07 -
Trev Batey has reported in.
This morning I went for a pre-ride of the course with the organisers, helping out to make sure if the course was all marked up correctly. The info I gathered from the pre-ride would have been unfair to keep to ourselves as a team, so on my return I shared my experiences with everyone so they had no nasty surprises.

It all went well in this mornings time trial through the lush woods of Dalbeattie. The riders endured much technical rock trails which were both fast and extremely twisty. A brilliant course and a credit to the trail designers - it was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

The RAFCC team did exceedingly well and came home in 4th place with a time of 43:19:400 - awesome. To put this time into some perspective, the fastest pair back were National riders with a time of 39:19. Second placed pair came in at 42:38 and the third pair at 43:02 so as you can see there is not much in it and leaves us in a position to continue to contend for a possible podium position.

I hope to have our overall standing position and times tonight but something tells me we may have leapt a position to 4th overall, if not third.

The boys have continued to push out a great performance despite Dan Lewis crashing in the rock garden. Luckily, he escaped with only minor cuts and scrapes. The linking stage for the rest of the day is a steady 60km trudge to New Abbey which has one big climb in the middle of the ride. It'll be a steady recovery ride with no real time limits being set for the teams arrival. The bikes are fine and our boys are both ok too.

The Royal Navy team came in on the special stage in 18th place, so no real serious contention from them at all. However, they are so low down in the field after taking a wrong turning on their first special stage.

Gavin Brown the RAF's solo rider came home in 32nd place with a time of 51:01 - very respectable indeed. The weather today is stonking!! Beautiful sunny skies with a warm temperature of 15 degrees is just perfect. It's a huge difference to that experienced on the first day and has lifted everyone's spirits.

The boys will be having a well deserved massage tonight from the travelling masseuse that has been accompanying the organisers.

- 20:39 30 May 07 -
Trev Batey has reported in.
The RAF team has dropped down to 6th place overall, however do not despair. Their are only 33 seconds separating 3rd and 6th place and 4th to 6th separated by 7 seconds.

Tomorrow mornings special stage is another relay - but a hill climb and descend with Dan going first followed by Paul Cooke.