271.81 miles
7th place and agonisingly close to Meurig James’ Willesden CC 12-Hour club record of 272.716 miles. It was a distance PB for me and a power PB – in simple terms, if it wasn’t such a windy day I’m sure I’d have got the record. It was more complicated than that though. The ECCA 12 was only 3 weeks after my 518 mile 24-Hour win. This meant most of the time was spent just recovering from the 24, rather than adding any speed work or any training for that matter before the 12hr. I was riding and physically I was ‘ok’ but not good. Mentally, I was pretty poor. The focus wasn’t anything like I had for the 24 (and it wasn’t helped seeing a downed rider being attended by ambulances and police – I hope he recovers fast and fully!). Within hours I was in pain on the TT bike – not show-stopping but annoying pain which takes you away from the task at hand. I was annoyed with the traffic, the wind. When I was in a good mood I wasn’t riding fast enough. Unfortunately I was in front of or on record pace for the whole bloody ride! This meant I HAD to keep going because there was always a chance I’d hang on and claim it. Alas, no. It will have to wait until next year because I can’t face another 12hr this season. I wish the 12s were before the 24hr! I’ve been so long posting anything about this because I was pretty bummed about the whole thing – less than a mile! Argh! Nik Bowdler won on some crazy contraption, err, bike. He was ~7mi off last year’s distance, narrowly beating Steve Berry with his 293.57 mile ride.
TTF – RTTC National Championship 12 Hour