Lincoln Wheelers TA East Trike 25m TT

Proper Trike and Old Skool event this one, no occasional T on a start sheet, just Trikes of all ages, new and old, and the Old Skool event which see riders on pre 1980's machines.

My colours were firmly nailed to the trike mast as I entered the H R Morris trike (or Christine as she is also known) for this 25 mile event on the Sleaford C25/22 course. The event runs out of Silk Willoughby and is organised by Lincoln Wheelers and the Tticycle Association East. The course I knew quite well as I've now ridden parts of it quite a bit already this year, so I knew that it was single carriageway, out and back in parts, with decent SC surfaces, but parts to be wary of.

This was the first time that I had been given a 5 as a starting number, albeit there were only nine of us in the event, but still, in opens , that has never happened to me before. Not much of a warm up, as the start was quite close to the HQ, but to be honest, it's difficult to warm up on a Trike in any case, as it's not like you can grab a turbo and do it that way !

So, 2.05pm, the A15, and I'm off, going hard for a short while, and the settling into the bars, because I've remembered that this is 25 miles !!!  My position is aggressive ,and as such, I have to be mindful of pushing so hard and wrenching my back. I overtook no's 4 through to 2, and then had no.1 to chase down who was a clubmate going like an absolute train !

At 8 miles I finally caught sight of him and by 9 I had gone past. We were in a headwind section which I had calculated would finish at about 12.6 miles and had that spot on. It was no fun counting down the miles to the turn and of course being the first rider, I had no idea how I was doing in relation to anyone else and I was anxious to see where other racers were.

Finally though, turn, and relief ! Backwind for 8 miles. average speed was 20.5ish mph and I wanted to get that up by 1mph by the finish. I counted down the riders as they came to me, and as I passed all nine, had worked out that I was leading by over a minute. Knowing that was a good target for someone to chase down, I kept motoring as hard as I could to the last roundabout, and turned for home, into a last bit of headwind, but I didn't care at that point as the hard work had been done.

I finished, finally, with a time of 1.09.30 and the win by a few minutes. Two bottles of Old Speckled Hen and a Tricycle Association certificate was the prize haul of the day.

Like I said at the start - proper triking ! My education continues on Monday on the V718.