Michael Hutchinson an impressive winner of the National '10'
Alan and I set out at 11.00am Sunday for my first National 10 mile Championship, Bank Holiday traffic on the M25 caused us to miss the Women's event but we drove down the course from the Stockscross Jct. of the A34. Brought back memories of the clubs Open '25' and '50' which used to start in this lane (in the 80's) at the top of Speen Hill on the Old Bath Road which was the venue of so many the clubs events and its participants efforts from its earliest days.
A bit of a rolling course but with a good surface with plenty of tree cover on a glorious sunny day with little or no wind. I went for a warm up around the course which was 15 minutes ride from the HQ at Woodlands St Mary, some riders were already on their turbos warming up but I prefer to get a feel for the day and the course and my rollers stayed in the car. Alan mingled with the elite of the country's short distance riders and their helpers. The course felt not so bad and I went around non-aero in 24 minutes (25mph) thinking that the race itself would be allot faster when kitted out & psyched up to race
Start order was in descending order of time done in the last 12 months, the first riders were beginning to return as we rode to the start, my start position (No 59) a minute behind Peter Dickerson (RT 316) we are old foes from schoolboy days when he was in the Surrey Roads CC. No 56 Adrian Lansley from the local North Hant's RC zipped passed late for the start (see video) but later we were to find he must ride like that all the time!
Cresting the climb after 2 miles
I had planned to go out as fast as possible try and get my minute man in sight by the turn at 5.5 miles and then reel him in on the harder second half but as we were only a second apart on actual PB I thought this slightly unlikely. There was an incline a Km after the start climbing 30m in 1.5 Km (1:12 steepest) and I was 12 secs up at the top of here (Alan shouted) which gave me encouragement as climbing (let alone in a TT!) not my strong point. I settled down for the body of the race but to be truthful in a '10' there is not much let up when I checked my PR was over 160 which only ever happens at the start (if at all) in any other race.
I was behind two cars going through the 30mph zone in Stockscross so backed off so as not to take pace and gave the turn my best criterium style effort and recorded 11.41 (28.72mph) at this point I was 36 secs up on Dickerson but only a hard 4.5 miles to go. I think my pacing went a bit awry here and my lack of practice (and age) got the better of me, I only closed another 20 secs by the finish and that was with an all out effort in the last mile to finish in 22.05 four seconds short of the catch. 10.24 (25.09mph) for the second half
I rode back up the course to the top of the hill to watch the final hour of riders with Alan and Martin Kostler, some of the riders using massive gears to very little effect on these moderately fast road, three of the last ten (seeded) riders were DNS which was a disappointment as this left some big gaps in the 2 minute intervals but Dangerfield (Shorter RT) was impressive only a few weeks back from Australia and already some speedy performances in his legs seemed to float along the surface but only good enough for 3rd on the day 20.14 (9.21).
Tennant
Fastest to the turn and 2nd overall young road man Andrew Tennant (Halfords) 20.04 (10.24) but pre-race favourite Dr.('Hutch')Hutchinson pulled out 40 secs on the young pretender in the last 4.5 miles 10.34 (31.95mph) to the turn for a final 19.34 an incredible 29mph, 2mph faster than Tennant.
Dangerfield
Supprise of the day was local rider Andrew Lansley in 5th place (from a place outside the top 100 on time!) with 20.27 (10.52) pushed more fancied riders out of the picture. I was 4th fastest in my age category (45-49) won by Charles McCulloch (Shorter RT) 20.47 (11.07) so can I blame age? in 8th overall also part of the winning team with Dangerfield and Mark Holton 20.55 (11.06)
The women's event was won by defending champion Julia Shaw (Utag Yahama) 21.49 from Lynn Hamil (Team NCA) 22.39 (12.06) and Sarah Storey (VC St Raphael) 22.50 (12.15) fresh from her gold medal at the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester
Junior event won by Joseph Perett (Glendede CC) 20.47 (11.05) from 16 year old Conor Dunne (Hemel Hempstead) 21.34 (11.38) and Tom Yeatman (Glendene CC) 21.47 (11.40)
I was supposed to ride the Brighton Mitre MG '10' on the BH morning but after two efforts in two days my body failed to respond at 5.30 in the morning, mind I'd only got to bed at 3.00am after a night on the tiles, sometimes you have to know when there's nothing more to give
Podium Tennant Hutchinson Dangerfield
My effort good enough for 67th The Full Result Here
As a bit of preparation I had a bit of pre-championship practice at the Inter-Club on the Saturday morning. There was a full field of 25 (any more and the time keeper cannot get to the finish in time) getting up before five was not the best but the morning was and we all gaterered in Rusper lane by the A264 on the Horsham bypass to test ourselves now that the season was well into its stride.
I was riding a fixed wheel of 96" so as not to overdo it on my ride to work bike (Summer) with some aero's fitted, and did 20 minutes on the rollers as I watched the others away as I was penultimate rider. The (not gift) hill at the start I had to attack with gusto to keep my momentum, I could feel my breathing restricted when I got over 100rpm which was my top whack in the slightly restricted position. Put in a bit of a spurt at the finish catching Jerry just before the final roundabout and spinning out down to the finish
It's always bad to loose by a few seconds but I crashed to third in 21.45 only 11 and 2 seconds behind Epsom pair of Emmerson and Malloy but the SWRC packed the next four places with a top ride from Simon in 22.41 handing out a beating to Jon in 23.19 and Martin Kostler 24.04 (on the comeback trail and training hard we hear) Tom only 10 seconds off a PB with 25.57
The full Result
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