High Wycombe Lesley Cole Memorial 10mi TT – H10/22

20:53 (PB)

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The crew came out to ‘watch’ this one (read: drink coffee in the carpark for ~20min) but it’s always good to have someone there to help or support or both. Arrived in good time for a change and had decided not to bother taking a turbo for warmup due to the rain. Of course it wasn’t raining when I arrived so I just rode up past the start and then back close to go time.

I’d not ridden this H10/22 course before so had collected some useful tips from the ‘sperts on lfgss as well as a bit of Google StreetView crawling (I must’ve been keen!). Plan was basically not to go out too hard like last time and then lift when it ramped up a bit on the way out and again on the way back. It kind of worked. I felt I’d done pretty poorly, but to be honest my power wasn’t as far off the last 10 mile I rode (and won).

I took heed and started out ‘easy’ but then found I couldn’t really lift later on so settled into a bit of a miserable groove thinking I was doing rubbish. Both the RABs were taken very slowly because it was damp, my brakes aren’t the best in the wet and I couldn’t see a bloody thing through my stupid visor! I had to keep sitting up to look under it and wiping it off with a finger to get about 30 seconds of decent vis before it fogged up again. Grr.. serves me right for taping up the vents. I should’ve applied some of that anti-fog stuff I bought last time this happened. At least I’ll know for next time. I was managing to lift the power quite a bit on the draggy uphill sections but it was annoying I couldn’t seem to motivate myself to keep it on for the flatter parts. WIth a mile to go I was confident I could PB and I picked it up a bit, stopping the clock but not really noticing what time I’d done. I only accept official times anyway so I like to wait until I see it on the board. PB by 23 seconds on less power thanks to the course mostly I’d guess. It wasn’t windy which helped too although the vis problems counteracted that.

Adam Topham won the event with a 19:16 (but he writes books on time trialling so he should be fast ;)).

Met Andy from the forum and chatted, ate some cake, clapped the winners, drove home and took Mal to brekkie. Thanks to the organisers and the (large number of) marshalls, helpers, etc.

West London Combine 10mi – H10/2

First race of the season, first win!

21:58 (H10/2 Course PB by 4:10 and *cough* slight improvement on my previous ride, 5 years earlier)

hippy 10mi TT win?! WTF?! Ron Purdy Pics 20150303-1-02-combine-10-1-3-15-9-640x384.jpg

Bit of a surprise to be honest – 10mi TTs aren’t exactly my forte (they’re about 500 miles too short!) and this was a full field of 120 riders. Although it was windy as buggery, the sun was shining so I think most people started. The last 10 I’d ridden was a couple of years ago at the end of the season in Kingston Bagpuize where I’d PBd with a 21:35. This one was entered as a bit of a laugh since it would be the first time on my TT bike since winning the World 24hr TT Champs and it was far enough away from any of my goal events that it wouldn’t hurt to have a crack.

The race itself was a bit rubbish – I rode out to the start and of course arrived in a panic with little time to spare, threw all my warm kit at Scherrit who’d come out to watch and pinned on a number. Nick McCullough kindly used his warmup to tow me to the start line – thanks!

Started out reasonably well and controlled, until baulked at the first turn and then proceeded to put down way too much power in a silly attempt to secure a power PB. This worked for a while but at the turn RAB I was starting to struggle. At the slight rise after the turn, my power was about 200W down on the outbound leg, at least it was when I glanced down – I wasn’t really paying much attention to the Garmin to be honest. The cool thing about 10s is they’re half over before you realise you’re in a world of hurt! Struggled along basically recuperating and then, with a mile to go started to cane it again. Ploughed into a big trench that caused my recently ‘recalled due to safety issue’ S-Works bars to twist so the Garmin was on a funny angle! Awesome! Hope they last until the finish..

Specialized Aerobars meet British roads

They did and I stopped my clock at 22:05, having started it on the 5s count. So short 22 or long 21? Went back looking for the gloves at the start but the Middlesex RC starter/organiser had grabbed them and taken them back to the HQ for me. Thanks!

At the HQ, chatted to some people and saw I’d pretty much posted the fastest time and then they wrote “1st” next to my time so that pretty much confirmed things. Wow, I’d won a 10mi TT. 🙂

2015 WLC Middlesex RC 10mi TT hippy wins!

Thanks for dropping the chainrings off umop3pisdn, sorry I didn’t get to see you in person. Thanks to the marshals and organisers, Scherrit, anyone who helped put cake in my face hole after the event, basically.

Wonder how I’d go if I trained? Don’t listen to anyone who says commuting is junk miles. 😉