Big June

June has been one massive month of time trialling, with comp record attempts, double headers, a trip to Lanza and a shot at European qualification...

2/6 - Tour Of Cambs Crono - 39.32
A crack at euro qualification for the UCI champs in Italy later in the year. I would need to finish in the top 25% of my age group to have a shout. It was a warm day and an excellent event to take part in. A warm up area and an arena start ramp for that professional feel. again, being so soon after the position change, I started well, but felt like I faded in the second half of the race, particularly struggling to get going again after some hard climbing. My time of 39.32 was about 45 seconds off qualification and a comfortable top half finish - a nice effort all things considered.

9/6 Lindsey Roads 10 - 22.14
A nice Lincolnshire TT on a course I hadn't had a go at before - the C10/4 in North Lincolnshire. It is single carriageway, quite flat, with some dual carriageway thrown in - who would have thought ?  It was a case a further progress as I started really strongly and was holding my target 320W all the way to the turn at 5.2m - I thought I was flying, but the shame of it was I couldn't quite manage the same tempo and effort on the way back as my clock ticked over 22 minutes having seen the power average out overall at 310W by the time I finished. That Lincolnshire 21 can't be far away and it feels like that is my new glass ceiling !

16/6 Mercia CC 30 - 1.10.10
This was effort number one in the trike comp record chasing team efforts.  Gaz was off no.1, Me no.2, and Ian no.3 as we aimed to beat 1.16 each and claim a new record. The course was an amended one because of roadworks on the A50 which made the course faster in my opinion. It was a decent day and I felt good especially as it was a day before my holiday to Lanza !  I knew I was in good form having ridden the club 10 on the Tuesday on the trike managing a powerful ride and a 25 minute time despite coming off the course !  So for this race, I had a strong start and really settled into a fast pace right from the off. I held good power and despite taking a wrong turn at the first turnaround looked to have a little lead over Ian even though I couldn't see him. I couldn't believe I hadn't seen Gaz at that point but as he'd gone wrong at the first roundabout !! I kept good composure and really dug in especially during the second half of the ride for a very pleasing 1.10.10 which took nearly four minutes off my old club record.

23/6 Sleaford Wheelers 15 - 37.02
A Lincolnshire course and a new competition record for the three of us. Despite Gary's braking system disintegrating, we still managed a cummulative effort which beat the record that Gary, Pete and myself set last year. The ride was quick on the way out to Donnington and then really hard back from the roundabout into a headwind and some draggy climbing - a nice ceiling breaker for the record chasing boys.

24/6 York BHPC Crit racing
... and now for something completely different  ! I went up to York for the british human powered club crit racing. I used the pink trike, and went in the slow race with the other comp record sharks.  My usual crit racing on show, I was a distant 6th in the end - great fun, but abslotely bonkers !

30/6 Yorkshire RC 50 -  2.00.47
A nice trike 50 in the heatwave to finish off a mad month of June ! Another record tilt this time at the 50 mile team record. We would all need to average 2.05 or less to do this and it was a big ask given how hot it was, and the unhelpful wind conditions which was a sidewind of around 10mph.  For my effort, I thought I could hold 290 ish watts, which slipped to 285 by halfway, then it was a real battle and very uncomfortable in the heat. Eventually having to settle for 267W ad a new club record of 2.00.47.  Happy with the ride, but disappointed not to go under two hours as I hoped.