9th April was the first Westerly CC evening time trail of 2014 held on the Hillingdon Crit circuit in Hayes, West London.
The Hillingdon circuit is a 0.96 mile circuit, so in order to complete the 10 miles needed you ride around for 11 laps. So the actual race distance is 10.6 miles...
I wasn't feeling great on the day, which was probably down to the 40 mile chain gang on Tuesday evening, so I didn't have the freshest of legs, couple this with the 15 mile ride out there from work I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of a time. However I was on the new TCR and in the skinsuit so equipment wise I was prepared. I'm still yet to get a TT bike, and at the moment i'm quite enjoying doing TTs on the road bike! I have been offered a great deal on Rob Moore's old TT bike though, with a disc wheel too....
Anyway I arrived in plenty of time despite heavy traffic and was ready for the 7:15pm start. I was 8th rider to go off, from a field of 30 riders, the majority of which were on TT bikes or had some form of aero advantage (deep rims, extensions, pointy hats etc...) and after a quick few laps to warm up I was queuing up to set off.
5,4,3,2,1 GO. Always takes a few laps for me to get into a rhythm and keep to a consistent speed however by the end of the first lap I was feeling good and keeping to a consistent speed around 26mph. I knew I needed to maintain this speed if i was to be within a shout of my previous best time... 5 miles in and I was at 10:40 and feeling the burn, just a few more laps to go.... The back straight, where you can usually go flat out seemed hard work on the night, mainly down to the headwind & side wind that hits you on the North of the circuit, this however this therefore did make the gradual climb away from the start a little more bearable, with 8 miles done my legs were now really burning! 9 miles in and I put in a final big effort and maintained a higher speed for the final lap of 26.2mph, however I must have faded in the middle and had a slower lap in somewhere as the overall average was 25.8mph over the 10.6 miles which was 24:40 and put me in 4th position overall and fastest road bike of the night. Winning time on the night was 22:37 by Dave Spragg.
Overall quite happy with my performance given fatigue, conditions and start of the TT season. 12 seconds off last year's best time of 24:28, but this was in August at the end of the season, so peak fitness.
I'll be back in two weeks time with fresher legs to try and beat that!
Strava data:
http://www.strava.com/activities/128568640
No comments:
Post a Comment