It doesn't seem that long ago that we were at the Bananaman in 2007 when our Thames Turbo/Sigma Sport team kept the long standing record alive winning the Team Time Trial (TTT). This weekend we went back to defend the record with myself being the only constant in the team that romped home to a 5 minute win last year. If I am honest, I was pretty nervous going into the event this year, I knew that I was riding pretty well, but having only swam about 4k and ran less than 10k in the last month, I knew that this was going to be tough. I had visions of me not being able to maintain a good pace on the run and subsequently watching another team fly by to take the crown.
In the nick of time, we all managed to get our kit all sorted out, well, as organised as we could...this looks a mess...but it seemded to be okay in the end.
I think that I was rushing around all the way to the start, especially after having got to the water without my goggles and having to go back and get them. Anyway, the wind was howling on the day and this made for some interesting swim conditions out on the rowing lake. On the way out, it was more akin to a sea swim with waves coming at you, at least this meant the way back in for the two lap race was a lot nicer. My swim was totally pants though...never got in to it at all and just hoped that I was not making that much of idiot of myself. At the end of lap 1, I was pleased to see one of my team mates, I now knew that I was at least not that far off.
Round the second time and it was time for my favourite section.
The wind on the bike was certainly going to make things interesting. On the way out, we were struggling to hold a good speed and being on the front of the train certainly made life pretty hard. Coming back the other way was loads of fun however, 65kph on a narrow smooth road with the wind behind you.
We were not the first team out on the bikes, but we soon made it clear that we were the fastest team out there. We passed the winning team in style and then went on put a pretty sizeable margin between us and the chasers. This was exactly what I wanted, basically to not get caught up in some running race with another team...I knew my running legs were not what they were and that the run was not going to be much fun.
On the first of the 3 lap run we all knew that this would be the first glimpse we would have of how far ahead we were. I was so pleased when we turned at the far end and ran for quite a while before we saw anyone else - I was quite sure now that we had done enough to be able win.
The run was not much fun, but I made it round. Thanks especially to Guy and Roger for blocking the wind on the way out and then the helpful hand on the back on a few occasions. Also, thanks for not pushing me past the crowds :)
In the end, we won by 5 over 5 minutes again....another good day in the office and back to the podium days at least.
From the moment I realised how bad my injuries were from falling off my bike, I had been worrying about being able to take part in the National Team Time Trial Champs (TTT). I had signed up with two other chaps from London Dynamo, and I desperately did not want to let them down....plus, I was desperate myself to have a crack at this. I had a strong team and we all knew that we're going to go fast....just how fast we ended up going was not quite in my comprehension.
We arrived at our dingy hotel on the dual carriageway and headed straight out on the bikes to give the course the once over. It took about one second to realise that, if the wind stayed like this, we were gonna be going pretty fast on the first stretch. Coming back the other way was not much fun, but overall, the course looked good and not bad for a time trialist, compared the scrapped route which would have been better suited to people who race in road races.
On the day of the race, the rain was beating down and the wind was still just as strong as the day before. So, come 10 we set out on one of the fastest and scariest pieces of cycling that I have ever been involved with. On the downhill sections to the first turn we were topping out at over 70kph and all within a whisker of the wheel in front of you as you desperately need to stay in the drafting zone to maximise your rest while you are not on the front of the steam train. Once we hit the turn point though, everything changed, the uphills seemed to be longer than I remembered and the wind was just making everything pretty grim. If I am honest, there were a couple of points on the uphills where I almost asked the other two to ease off a bit. I just had to keep on reminding myself that this was the Nationals and pain is just part and parcel of what I had signed up for. Thankfully, it was not that long before we turned again and headed back down with the wind behind us. As always, this 'easier' bit seemed to be over in no time and the last slog was always going to be the hardest, what with 10 miles of hard labour into the wind. The legs were now on fire and the number of times I was having to totally bury myself to get back on the wheel was getting too much. Still, the road flattened out a bit with about 5 miles to go, but we were all now totally killing ourselves to get over that line as quick as possible.
Having the finish line in sight was a totally amazing feeling, one last moment of agony and I knew that the pain would stop. We crossed the line, covered in snot and soaked through in a remarkable 52:41 for the 42.5km course. I was just totally amazed, we had managed to average over 48kph for race....we knew we had done a good time but with the calibre of rider racing on the day, we had no clue as to where this would put us amongst the field. When we got to the hall we could see that we were in 3rd place at the time with another 3 teams to go up on the board. I could already see that we had beaten some top competition but some of the best teams were still to come in. In the end, one of them punctured, we beat another and one more came in as the winners. We had been knocked into 4th place...worst of all, this was by a mere 2 seconds and we were only 37 seconds behind the overall winners.
A good day in the office though...the HR graph below shows just how hard the ride was...
Write up is here
Results are here
This does however end my run of podium finishes for the season. But, to be honest, this is the hardest that I have raced all season, so I am not that disappointed really.
