By Alistair Stanway.
Inspired by a man half my age after his superb ride in the 100 yesterday I travelled to South Wales today to have a crack at the fast R25/3H course for the Port Talbot CC 25. Keen to see what we could knock out and hunting a 25 PB.
According to the locals the weather was “a bit odd” light breeze crossing tail on the out leg and what looked like similar against on the return. Armed with some inside info from Emily off we went.
Super quick first five miles and similarly quick to 10 miles, ripping across the RAB’s at 30 mph. You don’t get that on J2/9! 
Keeping the pressure on as best we could but to be honest on some of the faster bits I could have done with a bigger chainring as I was spinning out a bit. Got to the turn averaging 30.8mph and feeling pretty good.
Return leg was surprisingly grippy. Having driven the course I was convinced the return would be quicker but how wrong I was, it was really tough against the breeze, which seemed to have stiffened a fair bit. Concentrated on sitting still and tucking as tight as I could as I pushed to keep up the momentum but saving a bit for the drag back up to the finish. Emptied everything and stopped the clock at 53:13 for an all time best over 25 miles. Mission accomplished!
Event winner was Chris Boddy (Team Aerocoach) with an insane 45:05! When he came past me I felt the draft!