British Time Trial Championships

Well, I don’t really know where to start.

As some of you may be aware, I’m relatively new to TTing. I will have shortly completed my second year of TTing. Although I’ve been racing a short time, It’s quite easy to get a little bored of going up and down the DC courses all year long so I thought I would try something different with a bit more skill involved, so for some reason I decided to enter the BTTC. I was, on paper, one of the slowest entrants and my seeding reflected that.

My aim was not to come last which I successfully completed. In fact, I managed to beat quite a few fast men, most notably Simon Smart of Drag2Zero and Sam Hayes of Lutterworth Cycles, both consistent low 20 minute men. Given I have never achieved a sub 21 minute ride, I was elated to beat them and finish 34th out of the 40 starters.

The course suited me pretty well as I am a pretty good climber and can generally maintain a good speed on the flat sections. The hardest part was the climb into Llandeilo which is approx 1.5km long at around 9%. This section was lined with people shouting and cheering your name which, for a rank amateur like me, was simply amazing! We had to complete 2 2/3 laps. The course was 19km long. I started the first lap way too hard, with the adrenaline rushing and with all the spectators, I got caught up in the moment. I eventually settled down into a nice rhtym and caught my minute man, then 2 minute man, then 3 minute man and for a split second I was thinking ”jesus, I could win this”!! Then my minute man caught me at about 11km and the dream died. The first lap flew by, by the second lap I was starting to pay for the way I had set off in the first lap and had a few cramping issues. After a bit of freewheel stretching, the cramping eased and I was able to get back into a good rhtym. My lap splits were quite even, much to my surprise. On the third lap, we complete 2/3 of the course and miss out the hard climb into Llandeilo, which I was quite pleased about. My third lap was noticeably slower than the first two and I eventually completed the race in 1h 19:00. Only 14 minutes down on Brad Wiggins. I’ll have him next year.

Team Sky got 1, 2 3. (Wiggins, Froome, Thomas).

Full race report here - http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/road/article/roa20100903-2010-British-Time-Trial-Championships-0

It was an absolutely superb event and despite all the Pro cyclists, I didn’t feel TOO out of place. Seeing Brad in full flight was unbelievable. The fast section on the A40 was where Lyndsey was parked so when I had finished I went to meet her and we watched all the top seeds absolutely fly past us, the speed was astonishing! Oh how I wish I was pro cyclist!

Anyhow, the season will shortly be at an end and I hope to join you on some club runs in the winter months.

Al

This entry was posted on 06/09/2010 at 11:34 am and is filed under Blogroll. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

| Print