Hounslow & District 25 - 1st - 53:58

Well, finally I have managed to win my first ever open TT. I have been racing for nigh on 4 years now and have consistently been able to finish in the top 3, but last weekend I finally managed to get the top spot, and by close to a minute as well.

I had entered the Hounslow & District TT on the request of a mate of mine who wanted to see if we could get the team prize, a lot of us liked the course (h25/8) and we managed to assemble 3 pretty good riders which should have put the team prize well within our reach on the day. However, come the day of the race, James was not feeling too well and Martin only managed to ride to the start line, only to clear his tire of flint and open the wound which led to a DNS. So, I ended up just riding with the intention of seeing how well I could do.

The conditions on the day were far from ideal, I remain wistful of a day when I turn up a TT and the conditions are ideal. There always seems to be some factor, be it rain or wind which means that a fast time is simply not on the card. For this race, it was wind which was going to prove to be the undoing any fast times. The headwind on the way out seemed to be picking up all the time and this was going to mean a nasty stint at the start and middle of the race as we went round the two laps.

Going out was tough, the headwind meant that it was quite simply a case of just hanging on and trying t push the biggest gear I could. The carrot on each headwind section was the roundabout at the end. On both laps, it was akin to a slingshot as you could feel the speed creeping up even before you had taken the exit. I was going from pushing hard at 35kph to cruising at 50-60kph. It's probably fair to say that the riding along in 56x11 on a flat piece of road, doing nigh on 60kph and still trying to go faster, is one of the best feelings you can get on a bike.

I crossed the line, covered in the obligatory snot and salt to discover that I had ridden just under 54. I thought it was good at the time as the conditions were so bad, but just had no idea how the other riders would have fared. I feared some of the smaller more agile framed individuals may have been able to sustain much higher speeds in the headwind. I saw Martin on the bridge back to the HQ and he showed me the favourite for the day going off into the distance, Martin's puncture had meant that he had time to check the splits. So, with the favourite still having 8 miles to do, he was down more than 40 seconds. I kind of knew at this point that I should be okay, mainly because I knew how fast I finished.

All in all, great day out and good to get a TT in before the season is over. Now it is time to (once again) see if I can spend a winter focusing on my running. Have decided to have another go at XC at least, so that should help.




News article on the Hounslow and District Wheelers page and in the local paper:

Hounslow & District Wheelers 25 mile Time Trial
Sunday 19th September

Richard Legge (London Dynamo) stormed to victory in the Hounslow 25 last Sunday (19th September), almost a minute faster than Ian Greenstreet (Newbury R.C.) and Brian Molloy (34th Nomads) who tied for second place. Legge recorded 53 minutes 59 seconds while Greenstreet and Molloy both did 54.56.

The event was held on the Farnham - Alton (A31) course which the previous afternoon in the North Hants RC 25 had been the scene of a shattering ride by Alex Dowsett, the young Trek Livestrong professional, who recorded 46 minutes 58 seconds. However Sunday morning proved to be a different proposition from the Saturday with a blustery south west wind blowing along the course, the general opinion being that the conditions made the Hounslow event about three minutes slower.

Primarily a triathlete, Richard Legge had not ridden any time trials since the National 25 Championship in early June, yet he seemed to find a way to beat the wind which left most of the field struggling. Richard commented: “I like to use big gears, I know there some who disapprove, but 60-70 rpm seems to suit me. I used 56 x 11 almost all the way on the tailwind sections.” And on the subject of time trials in general he said “I'm still surprised to find these CTT events are not flooded with triathletes: they are well organised, there is no problem with 'drafting' which is sometimes almost inevitable in triathlons because of the sheer number of competitors on the road, and the entry fees are much lower than triathlons.” He went home a happy man since this was his first ever outright victory in an open time trial.

Rob Gilmour was the Hounslow's best rider with a creditable 57.08 for 11th place. Club president Jeff Marshall recorded 1.02.06 which gave him the second best veterans' plus - the victor in this category was that frequent winner of vets' prizes, 73 year old John Woodburn (V.C. Meudon) whose actual time was 1.00.53. John complained about the wind and said he was a little tired having raced in the Rudy Project event the day before on Tees side! He won the age related event there too.

The best lady was Nicki Hunt (London & Home Counties VTTA) whose 1.6.28 was just over a minute too good for second placed Jo Wells of the Hounslow.

Chris Lovibond

http://www.hounslowanddistrictwheelers.co.uk/news/10/open_25.html

National Triathlon Relay Championships

Ok, these happened quite a while ago, but in the interests of making sure I get every race on here, they need to be mentioned.

Our Thames Turbo mixed team had set out to see if we could (again) claim a medal in this often less fiercely fought category. We had got second a couple of years ago, so we wanted to see if we could better that this year.

Alas it was not to be this time round, if there is one truism of the relays, it is that they seem to get increasingly competitive as the years go by. As it is, you need to have 4 members in the team who are pretty decent at each of the disciplines, in the end, we finished up in 5th place.

The good news for me though was that I did manage to get the fastest bike split in the morning's races, I was the only person to sneak under 20 minutes for the ~15k course.

I raced again in the afternoon in a men's team where we had a good bit of intra-club rivalry going on. Thankfully, the team I was in managed to win that private race. Annoyingly though, someone from the army managed to push my second bike split in to second place for the afternoon races. Still, not a bad day to have the fastest bike split in the morning and the second fastest in the afternoon. Not sure how I fared I was in the other disciplines, certainly not as well anyway!