Day 2 of the tour was the new Bow Brickhill cross country hill race, a short sharp blast around the undulations of Bow Brickhill woods taking in all the mud, sand and tree roots you could ever want.  The team suffered a setback before even making it to Brickhill – Chris W succumbing to a nasty Achilles injury whilst leading the Greeks into Troy…. (well ok, we might have made that last bit up to make Chris’ injury sound better than a knackered Achilles from the Tattenhoe race!)  Despite this set back, Chris will attempt to feature again before the end of the tour, so we all wish him a speedy recovery!

 

Pete Mackrell once against led the way for the LBAC team, with Chris N tucked in just behind him, both working at a steady pace as the lead pack all shot off up the first hill.  A mere three hills later, the enthusiasm of the lead pack began to tell as Pete and Chris made a few places as the fast boys started to struggle.  Despite the clearly marked signs, some of the lead pack decided they wanted to take a wrong turn and add an extra loop into the course, giving Pete and Chris a massive boost and catapulting them up into 4^th and 6^th respectively!

 

Pete maintained a solid pace through the latter half of the race and with yet more wrong turns from the race leaders managed to jump up to 3^rd place and finished with a time of 14:29.  Chris N lost a bit of pace through the last half mile and finished 8^th in a time of 14:55.  Alex Britt came into the hill race not sure what to expect but eager to build on his good start at Tattenhoe and immediately showed some good strength by keeping the front runners well within his sights through the first sections of the course.  Working up and down the hills, Alex powered past some of the runners who finished ahead of him at Tattenhoe and finished six places higher in 30^th with a time of 17:13.  The final member of team was Richard Inchley, who claims not to be a fan of the hills, but still put in a solid performance to maintain his consistent finishing and returned a second finish in 47^th place with a time of 20:22.

 

At the end of day 2, Pete maintained his 4^th place and opened up a cushion to the next challenger, Chris N snuck up one place to 7^th, Alex and Richard both jumped a massive five places to 31^st and 42^nd respectively, both with a good lead over the next competitors!