22 August 2013

Donington track evening...

Donington may well call be known as "The heart of British motorsport" but this evening it was a rather slower form of wheeled sport that took to the track, cyclists! And I was one of them. The circuit has been opened up to bikes a number of times this summer but this was the first time I'd been able to go and have a play.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening but, with hindsight, maybe I would have been better taking the bike there and back in the car rather than riding it. I had ridden to work and back today, then swapped to the road bike and rushed over to Donington to be there in time for the track opening. I put in seven reasonably paced (for me) laps of the circuit before then riding home before it dropped dark. I was wrecked by the time I got home for my supper!

My best three laps of the 2.5 mile circuit were, according to Strava...

7min 15secs @ an average of 20.3mph.
7min 16secs @ an average of 20.3mph.
7min 27secs @ an average of 19.8mph.

My maximum recorded speed was 36.9mph - which I guess must have been down Craner Curves. If it wasn't then I'd love to know where I could have managed to go quicker!

So, overall, a great experience. It's certainly something that I'd love to do again as I'm sure I could reduce by overall lap time and maybe push my fastest speed up a little, if I really gave it a go heading into Craner. Not riding so many miles before the event may go a long way towards helping my speed too!

The Strava ride details are HERE!




It may well look rather empty in the photos above but these were taken very early on in the session. Over 900 riders took to the track in the end!