Primo Squadra - 25miles - 48:43

When I woke up on Sunday, I could not believe my luck...it actually looked like I was going to get to do a time trial in good conditions after all. The sun was out and the there was no wind, about as good as it gets really. Today was going to be a team time trial though and the other two members of the team had shown that they were on form - we all guessed it was going to be a fast ride, we just didn't quite guess how fast it would be.

Before we got there, we had all made a mental note of the course record. This stood at 49:33 and although this was recorded as a solo effort, it was always a worthy challenge. Basically, in the world of time trialling, there are very few opportunities to break 50 minutes so this only served to increase our anticipation, especially after we drove round the course and we realised that this was my dream course, pretty flat with loads of dual carriageway.

Before we started it was decided to not go out too hard, we wanted to save ourselves a bit for the last 10 miles where we thought that a lot of teams would lose some time. The plan worked well and I started out feeling comfortable. We were on the dual carriageway in no time and then started to get more organised and working hard to keep the train moving as fast as possible. Both Paul and I had set our Garmins up with a virtual partner doing a 50 minute ride and we knew from early on that we were up on that. At about half way, we were on level terms with the course record but we still had a drag up to the turn but then a good 6 miles of 35-40mph to take us to the finish. When we started the downhill section, we were up and then the time just kept on growing and growing....we knew by this point that we were going under 49 and that the course record was gonna be smashed.

We eventually crossed the line with a 48:43. I think that works out as just shy of 31mph!!.

When we rolled back into the HQ, the time had already been posted on the board and it was cool to have people coming to you to congratulate you on the ride. We had beaten some very stiff competition, and beaten them by a fair margin as well. The second place team came in over a minute down on us...that doesn't sound like much, but that's more than half a mile at these speeds.

Garmin Output is HERE