The guy who set off just behind me soon disappeared from sight and, with most of the spectators long since gone home, it was a pretty lonely race. I’m using this (and the weather) as an excuse for my pretty poor time of 17:20 – by far the slowest short leg in the team and over three minutes down on the fast time overall. Still, I didn’t lose any places and the team finished a respectable 25th in the results. I did at least manage to put in a faster time than all of the Southampton women who finished a creditable 28th. The fastest woman still put me to shame by over a minute though. I’m just not cut out for these road races!