West London Combine 2010 Event #4 25 mile TT was held today on the HCC114 course. This is the north-south-north-south course I quite dislike.

Another 5am wake up and the wind was strong WNW from the get go. After doing some laps around Great Missenden to stop myself cooling down I lined up 5th to start.

The timing guy called “5” and I rolled up and got held (as you do) and then I waited.. and waited and then timing guy calls “rider 6” which took me a bit by surprise.

“I’m rider 5!”

“You should’ve gone already”

“Ah sh1t!” and I launch down the road shaking my head at what happened.

The first north leg wasn’t too bad since I was fresh. The turn-around gave me a tailwind and I pushed the pace, actually running out of gears in doing so! I tried winding down the pace a little but this seemed counter-intuitive.. that was until the turn around.. oof! Into the headwind now and after leaving a lot of energy on the road this was horrid. Power was all over the place, speed was low and to cap it off my wrists and arms were taking a battering – I really need to do more (some) riding on this TT bike. At points I was getting out of the saddle and onto the bullhorns just to relieve the stress on my wrists. The rough roads don’t help here. Turning around again and it was the last stretch with a tailwind. The pace was lifted and a lovely horse float came past which helped boost my speed. Unfortunately they slowed down and then stopped encountering other riders so I was on the brakes and since there was oncoming traffic had no way around! Doh! Finish. 1:02:11

Power was down on last year’s ride but so was time, thanks to the cheat bike I guess. Still, I beat Simon (sorry mate :)) and compared favourably to Malcolm Woolsey who usually does sub-1hr and this time did a 1:01:xx. Peter Dixon destroyed the course with a 58:02 taking a minute of his PB.

HCC114 25mi TT:

Duration: 1:02:11 (1:02:17)

Work: 1121 kJ

TSS: 104 (intensity factor 1.005)

Nor Pwr: 307

VI: 1.02

Distance: 40.924 km

Min Max Avg

Power: 0 971 300 watts

Cadence: 35 114 91 rpm

Speed: 4.1 57.1 39.4 kph

Pace 1:03 14:38 1:31 min/km

Lance’s Willesden CC summary can be found here.

Last year’s 1:03:42 on a road bike.