Thetford round three

How it went for me:

My intention was to get away as quickly as possible, as I'd noticed that the guy who was lying two points ahead of me overall started slowly in the last two rounds and I didn't want him sitting behind me the whole race, only to come past at the end.

I got a fast start with the second fastest group and managed to hang on for almost three laps when I blew up! I managed to keep going but was slowing up a lot. Part way through the fourth lap Paulo came past and gave me his wheel for a while on one of the fire roads, but I couldn't hold on to him after that. As Paulo left he said we had to push to get another lap before the four hours was up. I pushed as hard as I could and toward the end of the fifth lap I passed Stefano Fardello who said Paulo was at least four minutes up on me. I got through the start/finish with six minutes to spare and into my sixth lap.

I grabbed a drink and managed to eat a bar and began to go a little bit better, all the time worried that the guy who was two points ahead of me overall, was catching me.

Towards the end of the last lap I saw someone ahead through the trees and pushed a bit harder to catch him, it was Paulo he'd blown. I had to press on past him in case the guy ahead of me overall was gaining. I finished six laps in 4.45 and now had to wait to see if I'd done enough to get third overall. Paulo came in a just after me and we waited to hear the overall positons, at that point my name was called for third place in this round......I was third today, so I had third overall too!!! It was a pity Paulo had blown he'd just missed the podium.

I've added some more pics: here

epilogue: my rival had missed getting a sixth lap by six minutes, so I had 12 minutes on him as I'd passed through the start/finish to start my sixth lap. Of course, if we'd known this we could have ridden back together and shared the podiums for the SM/SR

Ramon