July | 2010 | thehippy.net

Completed the Southern Counties Cycling Union 100 mile TT today. My first 100.

I was aiming for a time of sub 4:20. I finished with a crappy time of 4:52 but let me explain..

Whilst packing the car at 5am this morning I mentioned to fasteddy how I leave stuff in the doorway so I don’t forget it. He was telling me not to forget my shoes and I went on to tell him about how Wayne had taken the wrong shoes to Paris Roubaix and blah blah..

We arrive at the HQ and I attempt to put my shoes on.. my.. shoes.. on.. my.. where the fscking hell.. what the fsck?! Where are my SHOES?!

You flippin’ idiot! All the talk of not forgetting shoes and I’d forgotten my shoes! fasteddy asks around and no one has spare shoes. We also don’t have any toe straps.

Eddy has picked me up from the station, let me stay at his place, cooked dinner for me and driven me to the start so I’m feeling pretty damn obliged to at least start this TT.

“No worries. I’ll do it in my trainers.”

So, kit up and rock up to the start line with a full carbon bike, deep section carbon front wheel, aerodynamic helmet, Powertap wearing a pair of skate shoes on top of SPD-SL pedals.

With Scherrit and Corinne’s help I’ve got pacing and fuelling advice and the ability to easily read my Powertap. The course is quite nice and quite varied. There’s some A24 and some smaller, quieter A roads, some flat, some long up and long down and some rolling bumps. Having failed my feet, I resign myself to just getting around and do quite well for the first hour. I’d had a caffeine gel right before the start and have another gel now. There’s a brief light rain shower. I’m waving at all the marshalls having vented as much as I could about the shoes already and enjoying myself. I think because it’s a 100, the pace is easier and it didn’t feel all out like the 50 did. I’m also more comfortable thanks to some adjustments to the aerobars (thanks to Bike Whisperer Scherrit again).

Further into the ride after some more light showers and I’m starting to notice my existing tendonitis issue appear and I’m getting hotspots on my feet thanks to my shoes only having a very flexible rubber sole that curved around the pedals. Drop some more gels. I get to a roundabout and following their signal carry on up the road.. “hmm this is weird.. bit of a back road this.. doesn’t look very TT course like” and sure enough after a while I pop back out onto the A24.. with a rider coming towards me from the left! “Ahh craaaaaap!!”. I realise I’ve taken a wrong turn and so swing around and head the way the other bloke is going, ie. back to the marshalled roundabout. Sure enough, this time I notice the big red sign that indicates it is a U-turn at 26 mile and straight over at 50-something. I slow right down and tell the marshalls that I screwed up and to treat this as my first time around. In the end, that mistake added 10k (6 mile) to my ride. 100 miles isn’t enough..

Around this top loop again and then straight down the A24 and then it was two loops of some rolling, quiet, back roads near Washington. I enjoyed this section of the course and really hammered around the first loop without thinking about my pacing. Mistake. As soon as I was back on the A24 (this was around 3 hours ride time) I was toast. I was also in a lot of pain from ankle and knee tendinitis, exacerbated no doubt by the stupid shoes. I sat up and dawdled along, taking in the scenery or swearing at myself or complaining at the idiocy of TTs or something. I was a little more restrained during the second loop (read: totally knackered) and when I finally got to the 3rd time around and into the finish lane I threw my feet off in the hope a photographer would catch my sneakers. No luck. I rode up and down a few times, called Eddy who was at the HQ, got some instructions on how to get back to the HQ, rode back to the HQ and ate some cake, explaining why Eddy never passed me – “because I wasn’t on the course at the time! Ha!”.

fasteddy came in 10th with a PB of 4:11 and Willesden’s Peter Dixon rode the course as well setting a time of 4:15, I think?

So, take out 15-20 minutes for the extra 10k I did and I’m say 30min down on FE when riding in trainers.. and he is ‘fast’eddy.. not bad. 🙂

The funniest thing was arriving back at fasteddy’s place to find my cycling shoes laying where they were left, smack bang in the middle of his drive! (mate, have you got the photo?)

I didn’t come last, I didn’t DNF and technically it’s a PB. It should be very easy to beat but it’s a PB still. Even with the epic shoe fail, I really enjoyed today’s ride. I won’t be able to walk for a week but it was good fun. I was much more comfortable on the adjusted bars and with the Assos knicks instead of the skinsuit. The saddle might get swapped though.

Thanks to all the marshalls, the organisers, the kitchen staff, Bike Whisperer and massive thanks to fasteddy for putting me up and putting up with me.

20100727 - sccu 100 results sheet