After a long and steady drive we arrived at Braithwaite to rain, probably not that unusual for the lakes though. I wanted to get a recce lap in, and it was a good chance to loosen the legs off after a 7 hour drive. What is a bit of water between friends anyhow. Whilst I rode off into the cold wet gloom, Hev and Killy had the right idea, they popped across the road to the pub.
I noticed on the recce, lots of standing water on the back part of the course, obviously not that bad when just riding around, but I hoped it would be a little bit better the following morning, when it was forecast to be dry. The back road was also a little bit rough, but in all honesty no worse than the roads around Kent, in fact some of our TT courses are a lot worse. The back part of the course was the lumpy section, nothing too steep or challenging at endurance effort, but how they would feel in the race is always different. There was a few nice sweeping downhill bends and a couple of 90 degree turns, one after a narrow bridge. It is recceing these little details that can save you time on the day of the race by knowing what is coming up. You then turn onto the A66 for the final few miles back towards Braithwaite, a pretty good surface and mainly single carriageway. It was also flattish, so hopefully provide a good flying finish after the lumpy back section. It made for a great course, by far the most picturesque course I have raced on and I really looked forward to the following day.
After rescuing Hev and Killy from the pub, and getting to the hotel in Whitehaven, it was just a case of relaxing for the evening with a nice meal and an early night. With my start time of 10:30 I could have looked forward to a lie in, but I had decided to ride the 20 odd miles to Braithwaite on Sunday morning as a warm up, this meant getting up early to sort everything out.
The ride out on Sunday morning was pretty pleasent, very low wind and with it being fairly warm meant that it was looking like a good day to go TT racing, though as I was off some 2 hours or so later it could all change, probably more so in the Lakes. I got to the HQ lovely and warmed up, but with the dampish air, I was actually fairly sodden, it wasn't long before I started cooling down. It felt good to get ready in a very relaxed way and strip a few things off the bike, no need for bottle cages on a 15 mile race.
On checking the sign on sheet, I had noticed that my normal main competitor, Andrew Perkins, was a DNS (Did Not Start), so this meant I relaxed probably a bit too much. There was still decent riders on the start sheet that might challenge me, especially those more local to the region. Anyhow as my start time approached Hev and Killy arrived from the hotel to cheer me on, I rode up and down the road a few times getting the legs firing again, but in all honesty I think I did slightly too little and too late, so much for my relaxed arrival.
Once off I tried to keep the effort reasonable for the first couple of miles, as I turned to start the back leg I noticed a car in front seeming to be dithering of where it wanted to go, I had 2 choices, stay behind and hope it accelerated, or just really up the effort and get by it, with it being a race it was option 2 that was chosen. It never passed me afterwards, so I assume it turned off a little while later. I settled down again trying to make sure I didn't go up the hillier parts too hard, during the recce they didn't seem so bad, they felt a lot harder when on the limit. Once over the biggest of the hills past Dodd Woods the road thankfully went down for a while, and it was a good time to recover and try and up the average speed which I had noticed dropping a fair bit. One thing I did notice all of the standing water had gone, superb drainage around here. As I powered towards the Castle Inn turn I caught the occasional glimpse of my 2 min man, the little drag up to the turn seemed really hard, good power for very little speed it seemed.
On turning it was downhill for a while and this gave me another chance to clear the legs and pick up the average speed before getting to the narrow bridge and the sharp left hand turn. I took it fairly easy here, no point trying to save a couple of seconds and wiping out. The road was still a bit damp here and Veloflex Records never give me great confidence in wet weather cornering. Once I got going again it was a quick downhill blast to the A66, on turning onto the road I got a better glimpse of the rider up ahead. Giving it all I had I slowly closed on the rider, overtaking him seemed to take forever, though he said I went past like a rocket, and with the average speed rising all the time, though not as fast as I would have liked for the effort I past the 1 mile to go board. I was pretty much spent here trying to reach the 28mph average I was at least targetting, but at least with it being slightly downhill it helped a little. I crossed the line at 27.98mph and a time of 32:50. I had done the ride I wanted time wise, and felt I got it all out.
As I passed the HQ it was great to see Killy cheering me on, it isn't often Hev and Killy come to a race, but it does give you a good feeling inside to be cheered on. As always a slightly nervous wait until the final times go on the result board, and it was good to see that I had won again to make it 3 out of 3 for the series. One happy rider and one happy little boy as well. I must say a massive thanks to the CTT North District Committee for a superbly run event and a really great course, it certainly was the best I have raced on, and can see why others like it so much. Even the back road isn't that bad really. I will certainly come back and try and beat the course record, it really is that good.
After the presentation it was back down to earth and on with dad duties, we had a climb of Cat Bells and Maiden Moor to complete before the long drive back home. With slightly aching legs I can't say I was looking forward to it, but actually it was a lovely afternoon with Killy seemingly just bounding up his first big hills with his mum and dad dragging their feet behind.
The View up to Maiden Moor
The view across Coledale with Causey Pike in the Distance
Killy at the top of Maiden Moor
A couple of good weeks training now before my next race in 2 weeks time which will be the Icknield CC 100 mile TT on the 2nd June, just hope it warms up before then really.
1st Steve Berry 32:50
2nd Jerry Cross 34:18
3rd Peter Brear 35:03
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