(many thanks to the Purdys for the photos!)

A 50k 3-man team time trial which Ed, Louis and myself competed in on Saturday, near Princes Risborough.

I was the slower rider although now more trained up than last year, a sub for a LSE student who couldn’t make it. That was going to be my excuse for any failures on my part.. along with “I’ve not raced for ages” and “I’ve never done a TT this long” and “I’ve never done a TTT” and “I have a cold” and “I have no aerobars, no funny hat, no overshoes, no HED3, no disc wheel” and “I’d be eating pies right now if I wasn’t doing this!”. You get the idea. 🙂

Met Louis and Ed at Marylebone station and also found Jayne and Simon from Willesden there. Ed ate (and drank more coffee than even I’d like to consume), we chatted about how poorly we’d do, we set the train alarm off accidentally (as you do) and at Princes Risborough jumped out and rode to the HQ at a local school to collect our numbers.

Jayne and Simon were first off at around 1.30pm and we were off 30min later at 2pm. I drank my isotonic stuff, stripped down to my new Willesden skinsuit (Michelin Man special edition) and headed out with the lads to ride up and down the road to warm up.

We saw the Willesden duo off and then swapped some turns and got a bit of blood flowing into the legs. Back to the start line we sat waiting for our start time (3 minutes between teams in case you were interested)..

“2 minutes” – swig of GO.

“1 minute” – started my Powertap.

“30 seconds” – crap, I forgot to change into the big ring, too late now!

“3..2..1.. GO!” – let the fun begin!

Ed, Louis then I shoot off down the road and quickly bunch up. With Ed on the front my HR goes up up up. Ed swaps out and Louis is in front as Ed goes by and slots in behind me. Louis moves over and slows, allowing me to ride up. I check my speedo and make sure I’m doing over 40kph, 42kph fine.

We were going to do 30-45 second turns but I can only see power and HR on my Powertap. Fuggit, I do what I think is a reasonably large turn and move over. We continue this process and I quickly realise that this is gonna hurt.

My HR when I was on the back wasn’t going down much and I was worried about not being able to drive at the front again. For the first half of the first 24k circuit I was okay with 40kph+ on the front. This was the speed that would beat their time for last year. The only problem was it was windier than last year and once we turned into the wind I was starting to struggle with keeping that speed. It was down to 38kph and if there was a bump I really suffered and couldn’t rise above say 35kph. I wasn’t at all happy with this but if I’d dug any deeper I then wouldn’t have been able to hold onto the wheel in front and I’d screw everything up. The time is taken from the 3rd rider so you HAVE to finish together, unlike a track pursuit where you can afford to shed one rider.

I can only remember random stuff now: pain, slowing, Ed asking if I’m okay and me just glaring at him, struggling on any little bump and realising I never ride this hard for this long or at least I haven’t since racing in Melbourne. A couple of times I had to get Ed to slow down so I could get back on, so did Louis.. Ed is a machine! If he was suffering he was hiding it well while I looked like I was choking on my own tongue..

On the second lap we were held up by a truck stuck trying to get past an oncoming car on a one-lane bridge. Crap!! We were behind it for 10 seconds perhaps but the whole slowing down to a stop and then accelerating once clear must have cost a lot more time than that and taxed the legs more than we would’ve liked.

We passed a group at one point. I’m not sure if they were our 3-minute men or what? We were also passed by a very serious looking Oxford team – Cervelo P3’s, disc wheels, aero front wheels, aerobars, helmets, etc. The full works! But once they caught us they seemed to slow whilst we maintained and then on a downhill stretch at 50kph, we passed them back! Later this is what Louis said did him in – the surge to catch the Oxford team. They again passed us and we were now struggling with a red team up the road as our next goal.

I remember telling Ed “Louis and I are trashed, we need to do shorter turns” and with 5mi to go Louis was in a bad way and I wasn’t able to ride at the front at anything like our first lap speeds. At least Ed was now counting down the miles to go. I was annoyed earlier that the Powertap reported total distance for the day which left me mid-race with no idea how much longer we had to go! Doh! I need to sort this out if I TT again. Having Ed count down was quite helpful for me.

We got Louis in between us and Ed drove on. I recall shouting something like “hold that wheel” to Louis, trying to encourage without sounding like a total bastard. I’d run out of drink too early – half a bidon isn’t enough for 50k at TT pace. I also remember trying to catch the red team, Ed yelling something like “catch the reds up there. I HATE them”. That’s my kind of inspiration. 🙂

Ed and I spotted the finish line and we’d agreed before the race just to sprint for it, forget formation. I passed Ed while he grumbled about it. hehe For the win! 😛

Over the finish line Ed rolled on towards HQ. I was chatting to him but now I could no longer sit down and could barely pedal. I’d pulled my backside hip flexor muscles which meant I was really struggling when it came to pushing on the pedals or any sort of squatting movement. I remember doing this in a Steel’s Creek 36k TT back in Melbourne.

Got off the bike and almost collapsed. I couldn’t stretch the muscles because they’re that trashed. I try anyway – something has to help. Louis rides up and we have a chat about how shattered we are. I try in vain to make my legs stop hurting, give up and get back on the bike, riding it standing up out of the saddle to use different muscles.

Back at the school, Ed’s probably finished 10 coffees and some cake.. he was about to send a search party out for us 🙂

I struggle to put my leg warmers and shorts back on. I literally cannot bend over or sit down without screaming pain up both legs. Nice.

After some eating, drinking and chatting with the team and the Purdy’s we leave for the train. Again, I’m standing up to avoid bending my hips. The train ride involves all kinds of awkward positions.. Ed’s real impressed. Louis and I talk about doing Hillingdon 10s. Uh oh.

We ended up completing the course in 1hr 20min. Sigma Sport won with 1hr6min (I’m sure they all had aerobars though – the cheats ;)).

1:20 is actually 2 minutes slower than Ed and Louis went last year.. I’m a cycling anchor! The guys assured me it was the wind that slowed us combined with a first lap that was too fast, killing our legs before the finish. It was all pretty good fun though for me so I’m not bothered about it at all. Maybe they’ll have me back for another go?

Read Ed’s fantastic race report here.

CTT Results – 2008 Antelope 50k 3up TTT

Full Results (33rd out of about 60)

(Powertap wonderstats coming soon)