Maidenhead CC Hilly 30 - Races 1, Wins 1

Last Sunday I finally got my cycling season underway with a hilly 30 mile TT in Marlow. I had entered the 2up category with my mate from London Dynamo and although we only had one other team to beat, they were a team with form so it was not going to be a walk in the park - plus, I personally wanted to beat all the riders who were doing the course on their own.

As soon as I got there, I realised just how much I had missed being on the TT bike, it is just so much faster than the normal road bike and it felt good to be back. After our little warm up, we were off for the 30 miles of tearing it up round the lanes of Henley and Marlow. I realised from the start that my training over the winter had paid off in that I felt really strong and things were definitely going as I had wanted. I found that I was able to work the hills a lot better, perhaps due to some of the weight loss.

Anyway, we both knew that the worst part of the course was all going to come in the last 5 miles. Basically, the course was undulating for about 25 miles and then from the turn in Marlow it was one long old drag back to the finish, not to mention the really steep section that took you to the actual finish line. We managed to get to the bottom of the hill with an average speed of 45kph. In the back of my mind I had wanted to break the course record of 1.07 which had been set by a really good time triallist. I thought we were going to make it, but the last climb just seemed to go on and on. Still, I was still feeling good though and managed to drag myself up there staying on the big chainring, in fact, I even managed to keep it in the big gear on the last section.





We eventually crossed the line about 1 minute off the course record. I like to think that we could have been a lot closer or even beaten it if we had not been held up by horse trailer and some other erratic driving which is pretty annoying when you are only trying to go fast. Having had a look at the Garmin we covered several miles at over 30mph and on the way into Henley we averaged almost 50mph for 1 mile - pretty scary on the extensions and a bumpy road.

So, at end of the day, we managed 1:08:45 for the 30 miles and that did give us the win over the other team, by about 4 minutes and we also had the fastest time of the day. So, job done really! For me, the best thing is that I know that I am on my way to being in good form for this season. I still have a fair amount of work to do on the turbo but things are certainly looking good.

My next race is a 10 mile TT where I am hoping to get a time which will allow me to qualify for the National 10 Mile Champs.







Results are here: RESULTS