Last weekend saw another long trip up to the Lake District, this time to take part in the RTTC National 100 mile TT Championship, which was being run on the A66 between Keswick and Workington.
After seeing the start sheet and finding out I was on paper the fastest rider, it did mean I felt under a little more pressure than normal. There is no way I would have expected to be the scratch rider in a national championship in a million years. Also after my little collapse in the ECCA 100 I was concerned that this might well happen again (100's can be difficult beasts when your pacing is off), so although I tried to keep my emotions in check, there was always going to be more stress this weekend.
After a nice relaxing day on the beach on Saturday, the weather was gorgeous and hot, Sunday morning dawned and I felt very good to be honest, far more relaxed than I thought I would be. The weather on Sunday was good, thankfully cooler temps were forecasted, and there was a little breeze to aid the cooling as well. For this event I had my willing helpers of my wife, Heather and my little lad Killian, don't think they enjoyed the early morning alarm call though.
At the HQ I got my numbers and prepared the bike and got all my bottles of Torq Energy ready, along with the copious amount of Torq Raspberry Ripple gels. I normally end up struggling to get gels and drink in, but with the raspberry ripple gels being so lovely, I hoped today wouldn't be a problem, I would need all the fluids and energy I could get, especially when the temps did start climbing.
As the clocks clicks down 08:20 arrives and then I am off, remembering the coaches words of keeping a lid on the effort, no matter how good I felt. I settled into a good pace and the first 25 miles went by without any issues and I still felt good. The gels were going down nicely and I was drinking fairly frequently, though probably still not enough. Heather and Killian were stationed near the HQ which was around the 40 mile mark and on the first bottle change everything went perfectly, new gels and more energy drink, and still feeling pretty good. I had noticed that the wind had seemed to have picked up since the first leg to Workington, not a lot but it seemed to make the mainly uphill leg to Workington that little bit harder. I got a shout as I neared the 50 mile mark that I was 30 secs down, I was sure to whom, but I just thought that I need to keep focused on the power and not try and go too hard to close any gaps, I needed to be sure that I didn't fall apart near the end.
After the top turn, the average speed was lower than I would have liked but it started to increase with the slight tailwind and mainly downhill leg back towards Keswick. I kept telling myself that once I had gone past Heather and Killian I would up the power for the last 24 miles or so, or at least until the 86 mile mark where the last turn was, and then hopefully use the tailwind/downhill part to get the average speed up as best I could.
After getting some more gels and energy drink (another perfect handover), I pressed on as hard as I could, I found it difficult to raise the power as much as I would have liked, legs were getting tired and I had a bit of saddle discomfort that was distracting me slightly, still I thought as long as I put out enough power the average wouldn't slip away much. I hadn't really taken any time checks against the other riders but I did noticed Mark Holton had seemingly put some time into John Tanner, so I assumed he was going well. I got to the last turn and my legs were pretty much gone by this point, but with only 14 miles to go and with it being mainly downhill I was able to get some rest on the downhill parts. My thinking was to try and save whatever I had left for the slightly more draggy bits.
The last 5-6 miles were quite painful and although pretty fast I just felt as though I was riding through treacle, and each time the speed dropped below 27 mph it just seemed a horrible effort to get it back over. Before long though the HQ appeared and I knew I was near the end, as the Garmin clicked over 100 miles though and with the finish not in sight, it was for what seemed an age (only 0.3 miles though) before I crossed the finish line. I had probably done my best ever paced 100, and I was quite happy with the time of 3:41:47. I had thought it would be around the 27mph mark, so to be so close to this was good.
After a somewhat sore pedal back to the HQ where I was greeted by a very jolly and excited 8 year old, I sorted myself out whilst Heather went to look at the times, she came back with some bad news, I had come 4th and missed 3rd by a mere 15 secs. I always knew things were going to be tight, and to be on the losing end could have been very disappointing, but I knew I had given it my best shot. I had ridden probably what was the best 100 I could have ridden but was beaten by faster riders.
Mark Holton did win the event with a great time of 3:37:28, from John Tanner 3:40:43 and then Keith Murray 3:41:32. Considering we were all within 20 secs at 50 miles, that was a great 2nd 50 by Mark, especially as it was his first completed 100. It just goes to show what a class rider he is. Big congratulations to Mark. For me I did win my age group so I had some consolation, but I am extremely proud of getting so close to a medal and finishing so close to both John and Keith (they are RAAM record holders after all).
For me next up is the Shaftesbury 50 this Saturday, just got to get recovered in time so that I can perform at my absolute best, as this is likely to be the key 50 for the BBAR. Then it is more training for the National 12 Hour in August.
