Mal finally snaps decent shot with her mobile! hippy 4th and new 50mi PB

1:51:09 (new 50mi PB, beating previous 50 PB by >2min with less power)

Another early start and a rapid drive west to Abergavveny for the Welsh 50 mile TT Champs. Not being Welsh I wasn’t eligible for the title, which was handy because I came in 4th, but it was the last 50 of the season and I reckoned I could get myself a new PB for this distance.

The ride itself started probably too fast and the bulk of it was involved a lot of self-talk trying to find ways of convincing myself to pedal harder. Most of them failed as I cycled up and down between being on target and way down on target power. Overall I gave away maybe 10W on my PB from two years ago but I was 40W up on the Breckland 50 ridden tired, last week.

The lovely still day and two years of aero improvements meant even with less power and generally feeling horrible for the middle 40 miles I managed to knock over 2 minutes of my previous best. Unfortunately I still have the problem where my left leg goes numb and I’m forced to stand up in order to get the blood flowing again. I’ve had some expensive tests done on this but they were inconclusive so for now I just try to stretch my hip flexors and put up with it. I hope I’m not forced to get vein surgery like Stuey O’Grady had done years ago.

Speaking of O’Grady, I was one of a few riders picked for Doping Control after the race! First time I’ve been tested and a bit awkward as I was quite dehydrated so had to have two goes to fill up the pot with a UKAD bloke watching me piss! Interesting career move there! I instantly started feeling guilty whilst racking my brain to list on the form all the drugs/supplements I’d consumed in the prior week. I’ve not bothered to look up Rivaroxaban but since one of the side effects is lowering red blood cells, I’d like to think I’m actually anti-doping, just like sinking all those beers to decrease my power-to-weight ratio. 🙂

Afterwards we visited a cafe for lunch and nearby Raglan Castle which turned out to be free entry that day. Bonus.

Raglan Castle

The M4 was rammed on the way back though. Unbonus.

Thanks Mal for doing your usual thing (and an excessive amount of star jumps) and thanks to Scherrit who is still on US time and also snuck out to cheer me on!

https://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/R50-1B-time-trial-course-Abergavenny

Sat: 4am wakeup call before heading out to Ruislip for the 6am start of Tim Sollesse’s 300k Steamride London-Cambridge-Oxford ‘University Challenge’

The plan was to just tap it out easily and leave some in the tank so I could race the 50mi TT on Sunday and get a BBAR rank (completed 50mi, 100mi and 12hr races).

I’d decided to eat control food and minimise my use of my usual Torq energy products during this ride – I’m going to have to get used to eating ‘real’ food if I race TransAm next year. After a cappuccino and a couple of cakes I found myself riding with Pete from Milltag after the first control (changed to Costa in Hertford because of flooding at the orginal Something Lovely tearooms). Pete and I ended up riding the whole thing together, just cruising along in the sun, chatting. We rode by the Audley End miniature railway a bit unsure if it was the Info control because the distance was a bit off from the brevet card. At 114k we stopped for a bit in the Regal pub for more coffee and cake. The next control was at Ampthill Waitrose (172k) where I smashed a tonne of food and drink – eyes bigger than stomach plus nice bakery options equals feeding frenzy. I pocketed some yum yums but the rest of it also ‘sat with me’ for quite a while afterwards. At 215k we hit upon Buckinghamshire Railway in Quainton, a Control town I’ve visited before from the other direction. There appeared to be a wedding on so we just grabbed the required Info and carried on to Wheatley Services at 241k. I met some guys who’d ridden TransContinental here (g’day, sorry I can’t recall names). Pete grabbed some Subway but since I was still digesting lunch I just refilled bottles. We made it to the Rivers Edge pub 300k finish line before it got dark which was nice. In a rare moment of sobriety I declined a drink in order to get home quickly to eat and sleep before the race tomorrow. I must’ve been a bit low on energy because I managed to get a bit confused on the straight road home in the dark. Cue a few pointless u-turns before making it home. Thanks Tim and volunteers, it was a great ride. Thanks Pete for making my more chilled out audax quite interesting.

Sun:

Breckland B50/18 Results

1:54:41 in the Breckland 50mi TT on the B50/18 course. Adam Topham won with 1:40:08. After not much sleep and another 4am start I drove a couple of hours out towards Norwich with Mal. This gave me a bit of time to squeeze into my skinsuit and get in a warm up. The weather was once again lovely if a bit windy for my liking. I headed out with a power target in mind. This worked for all of 5 miles at which point yesterday clearly caught up and I started to fall apart. The next 45 miles were a horrid combination of rutted roads hammering my pre-tenderised arse and a feeling of emptiness – not a profound emotional emptiness, because we all know I’m a heartless robot, but emptiness in the legs. I just couldn’t get them to push the pedals all the time. I couldn’t believe it but I was having to coast just to compose myself before putting some power down again. I knew I’d finish and get a time for the BBAR but it was a pretty pathetic experience. I got a bit lost at the second turn and lost some time but the biggest hit was the fact that my power was about 30W down… on my 100 mile power! Yeah, I was in bits. Anyway, found a bit of energy with a couple of miles to go and came in, surprisingly only about a minute down on my all-time PB. Must’ve been a faster course making up for my total knackeredness. Afterwards I ate cake and visited a local distillery #becausewellpro

St George’s Distillery

Thanks to Mal and Scilly.Suffolk for the cheering 🙂

Before sending us to a no through road the Garmin did take us past this which was quite pretty…

Ruins