LRRA Middlemarkers - 25m TT on a very windy day !

Woosh !

That was the empty wheel bags gone and me chasing a rogue number that had blown away at HQ. It was a very windy day for sure with a gusty 18/19mph SW in Lincolnshire this morning.

I was competing in the County's Middlemarkers event which was my very first opportunity this year to race a 25 mile event - a distance I hope to do well at this year. After knocking out 300W last week at Scunthorpe (an event there are still no results for!), I had decided to ignore speed and just go for a steady power average of c.270W - using my newly developed three C's strategy : Composed, Consistent & a yet to be decided third !

I was away at 10.45 and into an immediate block headwind which lasted for the first four miles or so. I was holding around 275-280W but seeing my minuteman disappearing into the distance over those first few miles was a little unnerving, however, chant the mantra - consistent, composed and that over one...

More cross headwind to mile nine, albeit going a bit faster now and meeting other riders on their second lap of the course, so plenty of people to aim at, gauge effort, and use as carrots.

At nine miles there is a swift turn back up towards Wigsley and this was fast, fast, fast. For the whole event I had chased cadence over between 90 and 100, but now I was pushing a 55x12 and I was almost spinning out. Had to push really hard to maintain power it was so fast, but all good things come to an end and I was soon back into a headwind. My legs felt OK though and there was plenty left in the tank for the final 10 miles or so.

One last push up the backwind section and I knew it was going to be close to an hour judging by the riders I was catching - over the line, and I thought I might have squeezed under the hour for the first time on a Lincolnshire course - but alas there's still 46 seconds to find from somewhere !

On the day, 7th on scratch and I think third county rider - I'll have to check the results to know for sure - but a very good day out and another testiment to Ruth Eyles coaching.