Team Swift Slowest 90 event

A trike event…..on the V718……in the middle of the week……with little wind….. oh go on then…

I travelled up to Newport last night for a midweek turnout on the V718 on the trike. I’d had a couple of recent encouraging rides and had seemed to be going well on the trike for most of the year.

Couple that with my absolute favourite time trial course (sorry A25/34 but I still love you) and 20degree weather and 4mph wind and I felt like I was capable of beating last years best of 24:39 and finally earning my first VTTA standard of the year.

I’d asked for a late start time, and even though I didn’t leave Lincoln til gone 5, I was there far too early for my 8.22 start.

That soon came around though, and I was soon set off in familiar surroundings and enjoying the first couple of miles of the A63. For some reason I was relaxed and riding with no pressure at all. With this being a slowest 90 event, there were no riders whizzing past me and I think that helped. I reached the turn at 4.5 miles in good shape having managed 25.3mph, but didn’t know what the return leg would hold – I soon found out it was no slower and in fact kept a steady fast pace all the way along the return – my pacing seemed to be spot on and a very fast finish gave a PB on the return leg at 27.2mph for a blistering age record of 22:54 (26.2mph).

7 seconds outside of club record but made up with my ride of the year so far.

  

Busy,busy,busy catch up

This is a round up of recent events given the hectic racing schedule that I’ve managed to enjoy just lately…

ECCA 100

This was a first night ever of camping and I managed to get a pitch at Cherry Hinton Caravan Site and had a really good night’s sleep. Felt absolutely fine in the morning and it was only a 10 minute drive of so to the HQ. Weather was still-ish, with anything a bit of a cross wind. My start time was 5.34am so super early but as you know on this course you have to be off the A14 by 9.30ish so that suits me just fine.

The course is new this year and is all DC, so I was expecting it to be super fast !  I was then, disappointed, after the first hour or so, when I realised that it wasn’t going to be a good day and I was chasing down my time from 2 years ago !!!

My first lap had averaged just 23.5mph and when I looked at a power output of 240W, I expected it to be a lot faster. I wanted to give up at the end of both the first and second laps but kept going because well I don’t know why. I eventually trundled home at 23mph and a time of 4.21.14 – not great, but at least it’s a first 100 registered for the year.

Club Newton 10 – 24.16 – a pick me up ride and it went really well – power was up at 290W for the first time this year, and I felt that I rode it well. It’s my favourite of the Wheelers courses – it just seems to suit me, and although it was a time that was 45s down on last year, well that was because the wind was different and the majority was a headwind.

Grantham Road Race

Another round of the Lincolnshire TLI league, this time another trip back to Grantham Cricket Club on Gorse Lane for my third ever Grantham RR.  I started in Group 2 again, and was in my usual comfortable position toward the back. I did alright up the little climbs and tried not to switch off like I had done in previous races. I showed my face at the front on a couple of occasions and then on the third and final lap found that I was on the front with ease – I soon found out that groups 3&4  had caught us. That was race over again, and I think I ended up trailing the main bunch in by a couple of minutes. It’s all good practice though and decent training.

Trike TA Mids 50

A trip over to Etwall for the event on the super fast A50/5 course. Last year I had set a cub record and I thought I could have a decent go at it again this year. All started well enough and I was setting a decent pace. I was riding well, and although concrete mountain was a pain in the backside, I managed to get to the top only half a mile an hour off last years pace. Going back down was bonkers and I hit the turn bang on last year at 22.5mph. The dog leg section yielded and small improvement which meant that I was on the home straight at 40 miles, just ahead of record pace.  That was where my legs gave up the ghost I’m afraid and the last ten miles or so saw a deterioration and I missed out by about a minute overall.

Still, no complaints, I won the event by 15 minutes so can’t complain.

Club Thorney 10 – 24.13

The interclub with Lincoln Tri – again another really good ride, and guess what – my power was again through the roof, this time at 310W for the ten miles – I can only think that my 74 miles in the peak district on Thursday has done me some good. Headwind of 8mph maybe, but not much of a push on the home leg as you would maybe expect.

So, overall, a mixed bag of results and no real consistency – that’s my season in a nutshell !