National '10' - Post Haste

After a big build up the day came and I trundled off to South Cave on the A63 near Hull, I gave myself plenty of time so I could ride around the course, not something I usually do when I know the course but I never felt that I'd got the return leg right and lost too much time by not making my effort count. I took notice of the slight rises in the course and the  exposed sections where I was likely to loose time and I gave myself a point to aim for knowing when I would need to go into the red and for how long, I also had to test out the acute corner as you swing off the DC and onto finish straight only used here to make the event more spectator friendly and handy for the HQ at the local Rugby club.

The open expanses of the A68

I felt I'd done enough of a warm up so just got my bike and myself into race mode, Michael Hutchinson was adjacent to me doing much the same, It's good to come to these sort of events just to see how all the top riders prepare and there is allot of good natured talk but also a tension in the air as there has been allot of build up with regard to the time that will win the Championship as this is the fastest event on the acknowledged fastest course in the country. The slowest of the 150 riders is a mid 21 minute man, the women's and Juniors event having been contested at Alcester the previous day.

'10' Champion Matt Bottrill (Pics - Nick Hanson)
Second fastest of all time 17:40 (33.962mph Av.)

I gave myself plenty of time to get to the start, it was warm with a bit of wind from the North East and as usual a fast start, I watched a few riders through the 'hairpin' as the first thirty were coming home, many were in too big a gear for the sharp turn and several were hindered by traffic and had difficulty getting going again loosing all their momentum. so I made a note to gear down 'Criterium' style when I approached.

19:57 style (30.075 mph Av.)

I sat on the handy bench by the timekeeper in the warm afternoon sun, I'd taken my bottle cage off so nothing to drink, my mouth was dry but I get a drink from a helper. Peter Read from the promoting club Team Swift and the author of the the authoritative guide to training for time-trialling 'The Black Book' was pushing off as usual, he knows allot of the riders and always knows your form, we have a little banter before I turn my gaze to the road ahead. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 GO! And I'm on my way, I've ridden the National '10' twice before on the Old Bath Road (Newbury RC) in 2009 22:05 for 68th place, on the other occasion 2010 when it was on the A46 in Warwick (Stratford CC) i did 21:32 for 78th place. on both occasions Michael Hutchinson was the winner (18:37 & 19:34 respectively) he has a tremendous track record in this event only having been beaten by Stuart Dangerfield (three times 2001,2003 & 2004) and Sir Bradley in 2011 since his run began in 2000.

2nd Mullen 17:42 - Best aero

I push off and join the slip road and soon I am on the dual carriageway that will be my 'track' for the next twenty minutes, I get up to speed or what feels on the verge of uncomfortable and sustain this until I it feels good and then I go up through the gears, there is very little fluctuation in the road, it drops and climbs maybe 5-10 meters to the turn and I just hold it there.

Dr Hutch 3rd 17:53

Then we get to the turn, and its a bit of a climb, the slowest part of the course and you have to negotiate a bridge and two small roundabouts on either side of the carriageway, its all pretty tight but I have no holdups, there does not seem to be a lot of traffic but as I go down the slip to the main road again I can feel the effort of the change in pace and getting up to speed in my legs.

Andy Jackson (Swift) on his 'Blade' bike  5th 18:02

There is a bridge and a garage the five mile point and I go through in 9:35 (31.3mph Av.) but I don't check just concerntrate on my ride. Now the return is going to be harder to pace, my legs are doing OK its my heart and lungs where there seems to be an issue, My facility to go 'into the red' does seem to have waned in the last few years, maybe because I do less intervals or road racing type efforts but my top end seems to have disappeared, where I could go above 160 BPM today it will only reach 154, my average is still about the same 150 but that window of effort seems to be closing with every passing year

Finish straight

I push as close to my limit as my breathing will allow, I have to retain some awareness of the traffic and the junction that will approach and I don't want to mess it up. The traditional course finishes in the DC. I make sure there are no other cars and take the widest approach but still i go into the chevrons (and dirt) exiting the corner and you need to avoid an island in the middle of the road which affords protection from oncoming traffic. I am soon up to speed again on the bumpy side road to the chequered flag and the timekeeper, its 1.3 miles further on but the two minutes go on forever and I've nothing left for anything like a sprint as I'm already doing over thirty miles per hour, my second half 10:23 (28.89 mph Av.)
I have the satisfaction that I have improved my best time 19:57 is my first ride over 30mph in an out and home time trial, I'm still short of the club record but that will have to wait for another day, today I have to be satisfied with a Personal Best and (eventually) being 83rd place overall.

Hutch gracious in defeat.....Just!

The amount of fast time are breathtaking and the result makes for exhausting reading, four riders on 19:00 (13.6mph Av. faster than my half way!) and they are not in the top 25! Professional Russell Hampton (Athlon Sport) with 17:58 putting him sixth fastest of all time but not good enough for a medal here, only 4th place! Hutchinson 17:42 has the Bronze, it's not his fastest ever and he is gracious in defeat, another young Pro twenty year old Ryan Mullen (An-Post) the Irish Road & TT champion is pipped to the title by a mere two seconds. Champion and self styled 'Fastest Postman in the Country' Is Matt Bottrill (drag2zero) with the second fastest of all time (after Dowsett's 17:20) is  with 17:40 to go with the '25' and '50' titles. He's using a 58 chainring for the first time as if to up the stakes and the drag2zero team also set a National and Competition Record on the day taking the record from the promoting clubs riders who set it earlier in the season. It seeme there have been many more fast rides this year. Is it the weather? Is it the more wide use of Power Meters?But its the fastest win in the fastest Championships of all time 86 riders inside twenty minutes (including me!) o7ò



Full Result Here (Velo UK)

CTT report

Bikes of the Day

Duel Carriageway

Bi monthly report on the state of the British roads via the medium of expensive tyres pumped up to 140psi and then ridden as fast as possible along the lanes and carriageways of the country

Another world - Two events over the Bank Holiday o7ò

Apart from my weekly evening '10' with the Hinckley its been a bit quite, I put my gear up to 96" and noticed almost no increase in speed just a slowing of cadence and banged out 22:49 and 22:53 to match the 22:47 I could do on 94". I'd lined up a series of short distance tests to try and break the elusive Hammond Club Record of 19:49 set in 1995 and my recent best for three years over '25' was a good omen. First up the North Nottingham Olympic '10' event on a new (to me) course based at Long Bennington on the A1, traffic restrictions mean an evening start so I have all day to fester for my start just before 6 pm. Day has blown up very windy so the omens not good, last time I rode here riders were walking back up the slip road when they realised it was too windy to race on aero bars, I just got on with it but conditions like these are not for record breaking. I can use it as preparation and compare myself with the other 'On form' riders. Its tough on the way out so when I get to the turn in 11:25 I know that this will not be the day, back in 10:09 is more like it but Matt Bottrill has smashed out a 19:14 to win it, there is a smattering of middle 20's and my 21:34 good enough for 14th
The next weekend, the event where Michael Hutchinson broke (Wiggins) competition record with 17:45 that's an eye watering 33.8mph and the Swift Charity '10' again draws a top line field with 40+ sub twenty minute men. Before I get to tread the hallowed tarmac I have a warm-up on the Saturday, the Kettering CC - Frank & Joy Sheppard Memorial '10' is on unknown roads to me and I foolishly get it into my head to ride fixed as a way to spin out my legs and get them buzzing for the next day. How wrong was I? The course was a hilly circuit with blustery wind and to top it all Rain! my final prep race was a damp squib all I can say was I achieved +40mph down one of the descents although it was blessedly short to keep the 150 rpm necessary! My 23:44 was possibly my slowest 10 miles since my comeback in 2006, Even Bottrill could only manage 20:21 to win it
Sunday woke cold and blustery again and my heart sunk for something better, I'd already been in a bad mood now I had to sit in the car for two hours and glare at the trees and flags taunting me from their hilltops and poles. As I travelled North the weather improved and I have to report Humberside was sunny and warm, the flag on the nearby church was still horizontal so I parked my car in the opposite direction and tried to ignore it. I was right at the end of the field, still time for things to change, vain hope, Hutch was warming up close by, he actually warms up with his aero helmet on! With him it is not an act, Alec Guinness had his shoes to get in character Hutch has his hat, it's his Pavlovian touchstone. I just put mine on to race. Its a sad fact of modern time trialling that the need for bio mechanical perfection and power optimisation means that riders feel it is necessary to ride a warm up in their crash hat I do a 30 minutes warm up which will be longer than the race (I hope!) I prowl the start lanes getting in the zone, but the zone is windy and its very bloody off putting.
The start arrives with a fuss over shoes and getting it all together, I get up to speed, I do not look at my clock from start to finish, I have no concept of being in a race, its just time. The nature of time trialling is to prepare ones self for a duration of effort that borders on the painful, and 10's are the worst as the effort drains your senses that make all sounds go hollow and the colours go to black and white. air draws into my lungs and is expelled almost immediately, I can hear the wind and my breathing but they are a detached reality, a funnel of a road in front drawing me into its narrowness, I push the air in front of me and then I can breath better as I come out onto the turn, two roundabouts and a bridge, I descend into the narrow void again but now I have a moment to be aware of the race. The five mile post (a garage) and soon after Hutch scorching along in the other direction, boy does he go! He is in control. There is a little slight ascent of the road, no more than a few degrees but it slows your flight, you can feel it, the race is getting away from me. A rider who has gone before says "Save nothing for the finish, its fast" and I crest the final drag and plunge to the finish at 40mph, I miss the time keeper and it is half a minute before I realise I am done, I catch and overtake my minute man as the sound and colour flood back into my world. 20:08 a personnel best by 8 seconds (29.8mph) almost a perfect pace 10:10 for the first half and 9:58 for the second  and I'm 21st Hutch is of course the winner 18:14 down on his best - well it is comp record. o7ò

Swift Charity '10' Result

Out of the Blue

A good weeks training or at least three back to back rides during the week allows me to break a personel best out of the blue in the Wolds RT '10' on the super fast A63  Hull course. As a prelude I did a 22:33 in the Hinckley CRC Tuesday evening event on 87.5" gear (that's 56 x 17) I'd under geared by accident thinking I had something in the low 90's so my 105 RPM felt fast (and uncomfortable) and I was less than 30 seconds down on road man Ian Bibby (Marshalls Pasta) fresh from being battered by the Sky boys in the Professional Road Race where he was 'best of the rest' (5th)
Three hours on Wednesday and an hour and a half around the lanes at 22mph on 81" fixed set me up for the weekend, I've not been able to string together anything like that consistency in training so my riding (both training & racing) has been all over the place, inconsistent with no solution to be found, maybe the '100' last weekend 'unblocked' something because although I still felt a bit fragile my legs were strong.

20:16 of all out effort in the Wolds RT event

A ten mile race is as fast and as flat out as you can go in a time trial, it was a little windy and the early riders who know about these things put it 30 seconds to a minute slow, no matter the conditions I've come a long way and It's my only ride of the weekend and tomorrow I'm off to Devon for a week on my bike to prepare for the annual fiesta that is the 12 hour. I did no formal warm up apart from ride to the start at nearly 5 O'clock (but that is 5 miles) there is still some heat in the day so by the time I get to the timekeeper I'm nicely warmed up and relaxed.
It's a downwind start and I put all I can into it and use the top only a couple of times as there is hardly any variation in the elevation so nothing to go flat out and I'm there at the turn, Matt Bottrill (i-ride) my 2 minute man is only 10 seconds faster (so 20 seconds overall) and by the time i get around the two mini roundabouts and down the slip to the five mile point its 9:29 (nearly 32mph Av.) the return further and into the wind but it does not blunt my speed too much, I see Ian Greenstreet (Newbury RC) my minute man some way ahead but I'm too absorbed to get a time check the effort is too distracting and I do not look at my numbers for fear that they will not say what I want to see, there is no point its a full on effort and nothing to be done but put it all in.
The finish flag is there all to soon but it takes ages too, the effort subsides and you hear your own breathing from out of the vacuum that is the envelope of time trial racing, adrenalin and concerntration keep out the pain of the effort at bay,  I could have tried harder, everybody thinks that, It's a PB but I don't know by how much? I catch Greenstreet on the way back to the HQ he is 20 seconds off his 20:25? and we must be close, at the result board 20:16 (29.6mph Av.) better than I anticipated, some good scalps too, still nearly two minutes behind Hutchinson (In-gear) the winner in 18:25 Under 23 James Gullen (Wallis) a good second 19:14 and Bottrill third this time a holiday taken the edge off his form 19:23 he took a little more out of me on the way back but I was out there for longer 10:47 (27.8mph Av.)
On the Sunday body feeling the day after the event, i pack my panniers and ride to Clanfield near Oxford on the first leg of my trip to Devon to get in the miles in a last desperate bid to get ready for the Breckland 12 hour on the 14th August, the Saturday ride has given me a lift and I have to weigh up taking it easy and building on that success or pushing the boat out with a bit of extreme touring and hoping my body stands up to the challenge, in the end I plump for the latter, I need some time off from work and as I cruise down the Fosse Road towards Swindon the sun is out and the prospects for a good week to follow.