Last night I looked at the TT bike and thought “nah, it’ll be slower on the hill climb” so chose to prep the S-Works road bike. I looked at the 11T DA cassette and thought “nah, I’ll not need go fast enough for that” and kept the 12T on. Turns out I could’ve done with both. Damn. My normalised power was 20W up on the 10mi TT I did on 18/09. The tailwind on the way out meant that at my preferred cadence I ran out of gears on the Wendover bypass. I averaged ~47kph/30mph to the turn-around. The average after the turn was 36kph – the wind made a big difference!

Perhaps being on the road bike meant I paid less attention to the power meter and just punished myself? Whatever, it was fast and almost a new PB. I was pretty annoyed afterwards that I didn’t bother with the holder at the start and was mucking around pushing 2-up clubmates back together mid-race (shhh!). So, once again, note to myself: If you’re going to bother entering a race then race properly!

Followed up the 10 with a hill climb up Longdown and got a second place overall. I was a long way off first place (the winner has won it 4 times though I was only a second slower than him last year when I didn’t ride the 10 first).

24:24

Last night I looked at the TT bike and thought “nah, it’ll be slower on the hill climb” so chose to prep the S-Works road bike instead.

I looked at the 11T DA cassette and thought “nah, I’ll not go fast enough for that” and kept the 12T cassette on. Turns out I could’ve done with both. Damn!

My normalised power was 20W up on the 10mi TT I did on 18/09/2011. The tailwind on the way out meant that at my preferred cadence I ran out of gears on the Wendover bypass. I was averaging ~47kph/30mph at the turn-around. The average after the turn-around dropped to a meagre 36kph – the wind made a difference!

I probably should’ve made use of the holder at the start and perhaps not got involved in the err ‘Willesden 3-up’ 🙂

Using the road bike meant I paid less attention to the power meter, so perhaps rode more to my body’s limit than a pre-determined best guess? Anyway, a good lesson in preparation that I will ignore like the other hundred lessons in preparation I’ve ignored in the past. The ‘green army’ headed to Deep Mill Diner where those who had planned to do the hill climb had a coffee and those that were perhaps talked into doing the hill climb had breakfast.. 😉

The hill climb over Longdown (Cadsdean Road) was a fairly standard affair for me with the only things worth noting: sort gears out before starting! Crunch Bang Crack Pop Click Snap Etc. and if you want to perform well.. don’t do a 10mi TT beforehand!

I came in 2nd place with a 2:44 I think, way off Dom’s first place 2:15. Apparently I was only a second slower than him last year with a 2:47 which means he has basically got a lot faster going up hills. But it also means I am marginally faster up hills which is nice. Maybe doing thousands of kilometres during the season works for me? *bins turbo trainer* Yeeess!!!

Thanks for the photography Ron

2:01, 3rd overall, 1st Willesden

With thanks to the lovely man Digger, for not encouraging me to stay for drinks too much, I managed to get up on time and make it through the thick fog to the bottom of Windsor Hill. Without too much time to spare before the start I didn’t bother riding up the hill pre-race. I know it well enough now anyway. Tony, riding his first hill climb (I wonder if he’ll be back for more?) and his daughter Kirsten let me use their car to stow all my warm kit. Cheers guys! A brief roll around the block (I’d call it a warm-up but think it actually made me colder) and then back to the start line ready to roll.

Little ring, smallish sprocket so I don’t have to use the front derailler or spin too fast off the line and get my HR high too early. 30.. 15.. clip in.. 10.. 5.. go!

Using my light-weight Ksyrium ES’s instead of the Zipp 404 Powertap wheels meant the bike was probably >500g lighter but I had no power for pacing the effort. With this in mind I tried to ride conservatively early on the hill, knowing it ramped a lot near the end. Around the first corner I was already going for easier gears as the all-too-familiar rapid and heavy breathing kicked in. Dropped another gear here and then as it kicked I climbed out of the saddle to get some more speed into the ascent.

Seeing the finish is a nice bonus here and I was out of the saddle again to impress the fans 🙂 I heard some cheering going on (thanks Gladys and Ron) and crossed the line, gasping for air. Considering I could barely move after having done these previously, I was happy to roll down the road for 30s and then have enough in the tank to turn around and cheer on Tony and Kirsten and the last rider off, 29. I’m not sure what happened to Pete – he was going to be my main opposition for the club HC trophy this year.

In the end, I came in 3rd overall doing a 2:01, which oddly enough is 1 second faster than I did on this course 2 years ago. I was sure I was going to be a lot slower, owing to all the LSD I’d been doing (that’s Long Slow Distance not Lysergic Acid Diethylamide). Pretty happy with that – though I reckon it’s down to that 500g and not my (relatively poor) training lead up. 2nd did a 2:00 and the winner, Joe Holloway(?) did a 1:44. Not sure of the Savage duo’s times, they’ll appear on the blog soon, no doubt. Thanks for the gels Gladys. Found a quid on the way home too. Bonus. 🙂

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