Last Sunday I made the long journey up to the V718 course in Hull for an open 10 mile time trial. I took Jake Thomas from Oxford City RC and as we made the 3.5 hour journey north, we found ourselves driving towards sunny but slightly blustery conditions. The wind was in a westerley direction which would mean a 4 mile tailwind section followed by 6 miles into a headwind, this would be a fairly slow day for the course, however I was convinced that there would still be some quick times on this infamously fast course.
We drove the course a couple of times before signing on, and found a gently rolling smooth tarmacced surtface that looked fast, with a slight drag about a mile from the finish. I got ready and eventually rolled out to the start at snails pace with some slightly higher intensity bursts as a warm up, finally I was good to go.
I pushed off hard and soon found myself hitting 35+ mph down the slip road, I maintained this for the first mile before settling into a more comfortable pace at 32-33mph with the wind behind me, I flew out to the turn and by the time I was climbing the slip road to the roundabout, I had my minute man in my sights, I powered round the 2 turn roundabouts and gained about 15 seconds on him by the time we rejoined the carriageway, I soon pushed past him and focussed on the next guy up the road. The headwind saw my moving speed drop to 28-29mph on the flat sections of the course, my main aim at this point was to keep my average speed up above 30mph for as long as possible, and it was working... I passed my 2 minute man with about a mile to go halfway up the draggy section of the course, as the finish came into the distance my computer read 19.20, I put every ounce of my power down for the remainder of the course and crossed the line absolutely shattered. I looked down at my clock, and couldn't believe my eyes.
19.53.
Cue jubilant shouts and screams at the top of my voice all the way back to the race HQ, I felt on top of the world! I got back to the car and gave Jake a cheeky grin to which he responded "not a f**king 19?", I kept smiling and gave him a high 5! I got quickly changed and headed inside to find not only had I won the event, but was also the only rider to go under 20 minutes that day. My first 19, my first open event win, and a lot of hand shakes from other riders!! Jake also did a storming ride to record 20.59 and take 5th in the event, well done mate! We were both super pleased with our results and capped off a good day out with a meal in a local pub!
My ride last weekend puts me in with more than an outside chance of taking the Junior Best British All-Rounder this year, I have now recorded the fastest 10 and 25 time by any junior rider in 2011, and currently have a total average speed of 28.6mph over 2x10s and 2x25s. I now have one more 10 and one more 25 to try and improve this to over 29mph, definately my main target now.
My next race is the Junior Tour of Wales starting this Saturday, I am riding with the BC Central Region team including local VC10 rider Ed Clemens. Should be a fantastic, if not painful weekend, wish me luck!
Ciao!
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