I was originally down to ride our club 10 on Tuesday, however last time out on the TT bike I managed to shear an extension bolt meaning the bike was out of action. I had tried to get the parts I needed shipped in time to no avail. I was still planning to offer my help to volunteer for the event when it was cancelled due to a poor turnout, which was a shame.
Still it meant at least I could do something, and so I managed to get an entry to the Hillingdon series which runs every Wednesday during the summer.
I had done 2 previous, one on the road bike and one one the TT bike (Road – 23:57, TT – 24:40).
I wasn’t expecting too much, I had a usual rest day Monday, but aimed to train Tuesday but felt very average so just pootled about for 14 miles round the park. Got on the saddle Wednesday to spin over to Hillingdon and still felt pretty average. I’d not had time to switch to my aero wheels either so imagined I’d already be at a disadvantage.
Signed on and got my aero garb on before waiting for my number to come up. Conditions seemed ok, it was windy, but the wind was only really affecting things along the very top short straight, so everywhere else felt reasonably quick. Lined up and got counted in before setting off hard, doing 421w for the lap in just over 2 minutes, which was obviously way more than I could maintain. Soon settled into a reasonable rhythm, but the strategy of setting out as hard as possible and holding on wasn’t the easiest or best.
I was still struggling to get the power out but I think constantly having a good stream of other folk on the course to aim for was good motivation for me to keep going. Managed to push really hard for the finish and crossed the line in 23:26, averaging 343w, 5w more than last time out, which was much better than I had hoped for. I was also happy that I’d managed to stay in what I thought was much more of an aero position than last time as well.
Got back to the HQ and saw I’d managed 2nd overall, and 1st in the road bike category, my first podium in any TT of sorts which I was pretty happy with, although I’m guessing where its now summer holidays some of the really fast people hadn’t turned up, but you can’t race the ones that don’t turn up! That said was really good to do more watts than last time, and improve by over 30s, especially as I hadn’t expected much at all!
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/356843798
Avg Power: 343w
NP Power: 348w
Avg Speed: 26.7mph
Results
| Pos | No. | Name | Class | Total Tm | ||||
| 1 | 13 | Ben Allen | TT Bike | 22:19.1 | ||||
| 2 | 43 | Thomas Whatley | Road Bike | 23:26.4 | ||||
| 3 | 5 | John Sullivan | TT Bike | 23:33.7 | ||||
| 4 | 29 | Peter Stuart | TT Bike | 23:33.8 | ||||
| 5 | 9 | Malcolm Woolsey | TT Bike | 23:56.6 | ||||
| 6 | 7 | Ian McNally | TT Bike | 24:17.4 | ||||
| 7 | 11 | Tim Childs | TT Bike | 24:21.8 | ||||
| 8 | 55 | James Riall | Road Bike | 24:40.5 | ||||
| 9 | 42 | James Griffin | Road Bike | 24:42.8 | ||||
| 10 | 40 | Helen McKay | TT Bike | 24:50.8 | ||||
| 11 | 37 | Darren Rhodes | TT Bike | 25:07.3 | ||||
| 12 | 30 | Jamie Wimborne | TT Bike | 25:08.4 | ||||
| 13 | 53 | Steven Wood | Road Bike | 25:09.7 | ||||
| 14 | 49 | James Bowden | Road Bike | 25:56.1 | ||||
| 15 | 22 | Jasper McCrae | Road Bike | 25:57.6 | ||||
| 16 | 4 | Gary Martin | TT Bike | 25:57.7 | ||||
| 17 | 24 | Therese Coen | TT Bike | 26:00.7 | ||||
| 18 | 19 | Dave Newman | TT Bike | 26:09.9 | ||||
| 19 | 25 | Adrian Joseph | TT Bike | 26:15.2 | ||||
| 20 | 51 | James Maun | Road Bike | 26:17.3 | ||||
| 21 | 26 | David Morrison | TT Bike | 26:18.0 | ||||
| 22 | 3 | Vince Dey | TT Bike | 27:03.5 | ||||
| 23 | 1 | Wayne Meek | Road Bike | 27:10.9 | ||||
| 24 | 36 | Sam Farman | TT Bike | 27:18.9 | ||||
| 25 | 2 | Jason Fisher | TT Bike | 27:46.7 | ||||
| 26 | 47 | Timothy Hall | Road Bike | 27:52.1 | ||||
| 27 | 48 | Jack Stuart | Road Bike | 27:53.2 | ||||
| 28 | 46 | Ian St John | Road Bike | 28:06.0 | ||||
| 29 | 17 | Trevor Hedges | Road Bike | 28:23.8 | ||||
| 30 | 6 | Chris Parrott | TT Bike | 28:27.4 | ||||
| 31 | 14 | Jeremy Ball | Road Bike | 28:35.6 | ||||
| 32 | 32 | Christopher Holland | TT Bike | 28:51.0 | ||||
| 33 | 31 | Simon Bailey | TT Bike | 29:04.8 | ||||
| 34 | 18 | Dinesh Karunarthne | TT Bike | 29:07.7 | ||||
| 35 | 8 | Dave Morrison (Westerley) | Road Bike | 29:23.8 | ||||
| 36 | 21 | Seth Kanaris | Road Bike | 30:42.9 | ||||
| 37 | 12 | Gillian Morgan | Road Bike | 32:27.6 | ||||
| 38 | 10 | Orla Devlin | Road Bike | 32:58.6 | ||||
| 39 | 56 | Kirill Kandrasin | Road Bike | 33:11.7 | ||||
| 40 | 20 | Esme Devlin | Road Bike | 41:14.8 |
Thoughts of a novice cyclist 