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