Instead, I have a task of getting quicker and posting a faster time on one of these secondary courses so that I can get a ride on the premium dual carriageways.
The A25/34 then, is my favourite 25 as I said and the reason for that is that generally it is tough out, and then with a prevailing wind follows the most wonderful backwind 12 miles you can find anywhere before a testing last couple of miles.
Yesterday saw a SSW wind of 17 mph and I knew that it was going to be exactly as I described above. I started at no.112 and the wind had not abated. I went in the end with my zipp 808 in the front, and the disc on the rear as usual. By the time I was up and over the A46 and going South, any cross jumpiness had been dealt with and it was just occasionally twitchy but not badly - at least I gor the wheel choice right !That first leg I felt I got it all wrong and too many times found myself grinding a small cadence with a big gear chasing power figures, when I should have been spinning a better cadence for the same power. My average speed at the turn was I'm not joking 22mph ! shocking, but as soon as I was halfway round the turn, I knew that the next 12.4 miles were going to be greasy fast and so they proved, with me knocking out an average speed of 30.4mph at just 231W ! Cadence was good, and I felt fantastic - it's important to note though that I lost a minute and 20 to my closest rival here, so still lots to chew over and train for over the winter.
The final couple of miles back into the headwind were not as bad as I feared and I eroded very little from the average speed which had been 25.9 at the Farndon roundabout, 57.53 was a 25 season's best, so I'll take that, thanks.
A lot to think about then and reflect upon, a better cadence into the wind, pushing harder with the backwind and even better cadence.
NP 259w
AP 254w
Temp : 19c
Wind : 17 SSW
Course A25/34
HR 172bpm
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