Such tiny gains were rendered slightly null by the ferocious winds blasting through the valley for us all, leading to one of the slowest editions of the race in recent memory.

Off the start we were straight into it, from my own perspective it felt like someone was pushing a hand against my head as I tried to run at them, comic style.

After the initial few rollers, we turned left into the long section of tailwind. This was extremely fun and saw some incredible speeds from the riders, most of us spinning out our gears and just trying to get as small as possible to keep the speed up!

Onto the Meldons we went and back into the most monstrous headwind of the day. It was a case of trying to hold the bike up for the most part, and get home safely- which all 3 of us Gala riders managed to do.

Leading our charge home was Neil, who rode in just over 1 hour and 1 minute.

Next was myself, a minute down, followed by Duncan, who had to stop at one point and fix a sucked chain, losing over a minute to that but getting back on and finishing in a rapid 1 hour 4 minutes.

A special mention must go to friend of the Gala crew Robbie Mitchell, who stormed round the course to finish in just over 58 minutes. Robbie was 3rd fastest on the day, although didn’t make the final podium as he was awarded 1st vet, slightly confusing but congratulations to Robbie nonetheless.

A super day out and extremely tough for everyone, thankfully the rain held off though and we all got round in one piece.

Joe Agnew