Ogmore Valley Wheelers 25m TT

My very first trip over to Wales - its a near seven hour round trip, so to make life easier I travelled down on Saturday and camped overnight at the Parc Cwm Darran near Bargoed in the pop up Palace!

Up nice and early and even had time to take in a nice walk before packing up and heading over to the HQ in Hirwaun. A nicely run event with everything laid out easily, there are a lot of organisers that could learn from these folks (me included !).

Plenty or warming up and out to the industrial estate for the start of the time trial. The course is the super fast R25/3H which features a gift hill between miles 2 &5, and is an out and back dual carriageway job.

Nicely warmed up I perfectly time rocking up for my 10.37 start and was soon hurtling away heading towards the A365 on the rolling single carriage first part - controlled things really well, keeping on top of my cadence and effort. The first half mile of dual carriageway is slightly uphill, but it was soon time to go over the top and down the mountain ! It went a bit wrong here, when my chain jumped and nestled itself between the 12 and the frame, which meant a pit stop to get off and free it off. Disappointing to say the least but I kept my cool and concentrated on my power target and a decent cadence.  I lost time and my section out to the turn was my slowest of the race in comparison to me peers. The turn at seven sisters is a grind up and over on a long looping slip road and a couple of roundabouts - care really has to be taken here as it is very easy to take the wrong slip. Back on the road back, it climbs slightly and although it would have been ace to have a backwind, it was nice enough to get a slight cross head only. My power kept jumping and I now know its my cadence zeroing out every now and again and I have to learn to manage that as I've been backing off without any need to.

By McDonalds roundabout I was still in good shape and enjoyed a strong last couple of miles to finish with a 55.30 on the day which was probably more of a mid 54 when the stop is accounted for.

Would dearly love to ride the course again this year - an overall positive experience !