Bruce Kingsford TA National 50

My third trip across to Astley nr. Shrewsbury for the TA's National 50 time trial. On offer was the chance to retain the Bruce Kingsford memorial trophy that I won last year with my time of 2 hours & 18 mins.

Competition was hot this year, with a good standard of entry with winners of previous TA events all lined up for the start. 15 riders in total and the weather gods smiled upon all of us with a light North Westerly wind of 9mph and a lovely early morning temperature of 15c - which was a good job as we were starting very early in the morning at 7am onward.

I was last man as defending winner and had the luxury of starting at 7.30. My garmin would display just three items : Power 10s, cadence and heart rate. I knew whick level of power to aim at, I wanted to avoid the inevitable slide into low cadence and I wanted to make sure I wasn't pushing my poor little heart so fast. In 2015 at my first BK - I fogot my garmin and started the event like a 10 which was a poor pacing strategy.

Also, br removing speed, it helps because I don't panic or chase, and finally no timer so that I don't get panicked by time splits. It was a case of just riding and riding to power.

Of course though, given all this science, I again started off far too fast and caught my two minute man within 10 minutes who himself is a fast man who has beaten me before.
I needed a word with myself, and managed it finally as I took on the first section from Ternhill roundabout up to Prees Island for the first time. On the way back, power dropped and cadence rose, so I knew it was super fast and very much wind assisted. On my closest rival , I guestimated that we were around level so all was good. The eventual winner of the event, however, seemed to be miles ahead and making it look so easy !

At about halfway, the course slows noticeably and it became harder and I genuinely thought I had bonked following the fast start. Round the bottom turn and all to do, the power rose again, especially on the return to Prees Island into that headwind, and I kept it steady just blindly trusting that power figure - I was having to work very hard though whereas it had seemed relatively easy earlier in the event.

Round the Island and this time I looked at the average speed - 23mph !!! WTF !! That was an immediate pick me up - I also got a time check over my rival and it looked like I was 45s ahead - decision made, I had 14 miles to go to the finish and I wasn't going to lose 2nd place, so head down and keep working. Those last 14 miles seemed to take fowever and the last three really were an eternity.  Finished empty with a club record 2.08.39 and two silver TA medals - a better weekend than I had imagined.

Pos. 2/15
Time 2.08.39
Temp 15c
Wind 9mph NW
HR 170
AP 265W
NP 265W