1:01:29

Not too shabby for my first 25mi TT especially considering I’d been drinking at Jason and Lizzie’s engagement party from 4pm the day before, drinking at Mal’s pub the night before that and at the Lowlander the night before that. Clearly my drink ban for May has been less than effective. :S

As well as a healthy liver I also lacked aerobars and a silly helmet, unlike everyone else. I was riding with the Powertap 32h wheels too so no disc or carbon bling for this race.

Basically there’s huge potential for me to “buy speed” and really upset Ed and Richo. 🙂

Easily lost 30 seconds when I misunderstood the marshall’s directions and went straight over the roundabout onto the M40 instead of turning right. Whoops! Skid to a near stop and swing around, at the same time get passed by one of the guys that would eventually place top 3. I think it was one of the Agiskoviner riders?

After that my ride was incident free – unlike the three riders who crashed! Here I was thinking time trialling was less risky than mass start racing?!. I was passed by one more rider and passed a few of the riders in front of me, including Willesden’s Chris “Jumbo” James who urged me on. I was motoring along feeling quite good and saw Willesden’s Richard Jerome, yelled out the very original “Willesden!” to him. I was actually feeling fine – all my talk of leaving last night’s cider and kebabs on the road had disappeared pretty soon after getting on the bike actually. I was even grinning and nodding to the various marshalls – what the hell? I’m supposed to be setting a fast time here! I just thought they deserved some sign of appreciation for standing out on a road directing us.

A little way after the turn-around near the 25 kilometre mark though, it all turned painful. I went from cheerfully punishing myself to really having to suffer just to keep my speed up. I thought my speed had plummeted but checking the graphs, maybe it was psychological and not an actual speed decrease? Anyway it was very hard work now and I was now looking at the Powertap every few hundred metres to see how long I had left to ride. There were less riders in front of me now so nothing to chase until quite near the end. I always ride faster when I’m hunting something down. I passed one other rider here.

I don’t really remember much of the latter stages except the very end. I’d reached 40-something kilometres on the Powertap and I couldn’t see a finish line!

“Oh no! Did it not reset properly? Do I have miles and miles still to ride?! But I don’t want to ride any more!!! Oh, no way! Where’s the damn finish line?!?!”

Around a tiny bend I saw the time keeper and a little chequered flag. Punched it over the line and click down some gears, rolling up the ramp and heading towards the HQ.

Mick, who wrote the timing software had come off after a car pulled out in front of him without looking. His arm looked bad, with a big puffy elbow and lots of scratches and blood. He still finished and did a 1:04! Amazing stuff! He’d lost his phone so I lent mine to get the times. Richard Jerome entered them into the software from the as the finish line time keeper called them in.

Richo finished fastest out of the three of us on 59:00 (34th), Ed (who did a 25mi the day before!! Nutter!!) did a 59:11 (35th) and I did 1:01:29 (42nd). The fastest time was mental, around 50min.

I didn’t suffer anywhere near the hip flexor muscle tearing that I did in the 50k 3up which was good news. We scoffed the lovely cakes they had on offer, finished entering rider times, cheered the various placers/winners and then rode home. Rich drove (slacker :P) and I left Ed to catch the train and then proceeded to get lost on the way home, adding 20k to my day. Seriously am I ever going to ride somewhere and not get lost? I think not. I blame the lack of “London, this way” signs in Beaconsfield. 🙂

Ed’s Marlow 25mi TT Report

cyclingtimetrials.org.uk – official results

Willesden CC Blog entry for the race

Here’s a Powertap chart for you to drool over/laugh at: