RTTC National 12 Hour Championship

If someone had told me 5 years ago, that one day I would lose out on a National Championship by 0.5 miles, I would have laughed at them. This is exactly what happened last Sunday though when I was pipped by Nik Bowdler by a mere 0.5 miles after 12 hours of racing.

After losing out on a National medal in the National 100 by 15 secs, it would be easy to think someone has something against me LOL, but as with the National 100 I put in by far my best ever 12 hour performance, so even though you could try and work out where you could have made up that lost time, you have to accept that on the day someone else was able to pedal just that little bit faster. 2nd is no mean achievement though, and the aim was to get a medal so I must admit I am pretty chuffed with how the day went.

The day started with a nice cheery 3:15am alarm call, don't think my wife and little lad were quite as cheery though. After a short drive to the HQ I got everything sorted out, amazing amount of stuff you have available to eat and drink for a 12 hour. I was going to try and stick to just using Torq bars and gels, along with the energy drink this year. In the past I had had savoury food as well, but it probably isn't as good nutrition when racing hard.

I set off to my 06:25 start, whilst Heather and Killy made their way to where they were going to feed me first of all. Heather had been worried about getting to each circuit at the right time and did seem a bit worried about getting lost en route between them. I had left her with plenty of maps however, so I was confident she would be alright.

Having a laugh with the timekeepers prior to starting

And off we go for 12 Hours of fun

After a quick chat with the legend of TTing, Andy Wilkinson, I made my way to the starter. As I started I was actually looking forward to the next 12 hours, not sure why to be honest. I quickly got into my stride and the first 40 odd miles went by pretty quick, Heather did a sterling job at the first feed, and I settled down for the next 40 miles of dual carriageway. On getting near the far turn, I saw a sight I would hope I would never see whilst TT-ing, on the other carriageway I could see Police and an ambulance attending to what looked like a rider. I will be honest and say my heart sunk, and I went through a period of doubting why I was doing this. On the way back past the accident I saw the rider was being stabilised, and I could see he was alive, which was a little relief. I was still undecided of what to do, but my first thought was just to get back to Heather as quick as I could, and then make a decision of what to do.

Whilst riding back to Heather, I could see riders where still being directed to the next circuit, so on getting to Heather a quick bottle change and I made the decision to carry on. I will admit there was some feelings of guilt at doing this, but on the other hand, me quitting the race wouldn't have helped the rider.

Once on the next circuit I felt much more at home, but I was feeling the effort of getting off the dual carriageway quickly. I eased down a touch, but with the likes of Adam Topham, Mark Turnbull, and Nik Bowdler behind me I couldn't ease off too much. I passed the 100 mile mark in a pretty rapid time of 3:49, but I didn't really have any idea of those behind me, so I just settled into a strong effort which I thought I could sustain. Feed changes were going well, though on one change Heather tried to hand me some energy drink when I wanted water, still not a problem, I would get the water next time around. Unfortunately I was turned off before getting back to her, again not a problem, even though I was out of energy drink and water by this time, the next meeting point was only about 10 miles away.

This is where I had a bit of a bad patch, on getting to our arranged feeding point, there was no Heather. Heather had had to stop for food for Killian and to go to the toilet, and apparently missed me by about a minute. It was now about the hottest part of the day, and I was gasping for a drink, I was also having worrying thoughts about whether Heather had got lost en route. The lap was only 13 miles, but it felt like an age with me worrying about Heather and also struggling with lack of fluids. I seriously thought about packing if Heather wasn't there next time around, but when I got there a second time she was there already for me. As I was gasping for energy and fluids I stopped for the first time and took on water and energy drink and a welcome can of coke. I still felt pretty shoddy though, and again the next lap took on another can of coke. Eventually I started feeling better again and I was able to up the effort again and feel strong. You normally get a bad patch in a 12 hour, I just happen to have it when low on energy as well.

After these drama's every thing else went very well, feeds were going well, and I was able to maintain a decent pace, even into the wind, and I was feeling confident again. Onhe thing I did start noticing though was a very creaky bottom bracket, luckily it was coming and going, I am not sure I could have put up with over 4 hours of constant creaking LOL.

Once on the finishing circuit and knowing you haven't got long to do, well 3 hours doesn't seem that long when you have been riding for 9 hours, I started to think about getting the most out of myself. There were a few tough headwind sections, where even with a high tempo effort speeds were getting down to 18 mph, when you are trying to keep the average over 24.5mph that makes it even more mentally challenging. Legs were on the verge of cramping all the time now, but I still was averaging good power where I needed to, and relaxing a little when there was a tailwind. As I started what was to be my final circuit the speed dropped to 24.4 and as much as I tried I was unable to get it back to 24.5 by the finish. The final timekeeper for me was up a hill, so the last mile of so was a full on very painful effort to try and get the best mileage possible.

My Garmin showed just over 293 miles when I got the timekeeper with 12 hours and 3 mins, so I knew I have done between 292 and 293 miles, I just didn't have a clue what anyone else had done. On checking the result board at the HQ it was slightly gutting to see I had missed out by such a small margin, but it must be one of the closest 12 hour National Championships. It makes it easier to take when you realise the guy that beat you is a BBAR legend, and he had to work very hard to retain his title.

My thoughts go out to the rider injured during the race on Sunday, I hope he makes a full recovery and is back on his bike before long. Massive thanks to the RTTC and the ECCA members clubs that provided all the helpers on the event. It takes a massive amount of people to run these events and I myself am extremely grateful for all your hard work in getting these events to run as smooth as they do. Many thanks to all the shouts of encouragement from all the helpers from the other riders as well as the officials, this is what makes the 12 hour so special.

Roll on 2014, and let's hope to go one better next year ;).

1st Nik Bowdler 293.2 Miles
2nd Steve Berry 292.7 Miles
3rd Michael Broadwith 282.5 Miles

Winning Team - Hemel Hempstead

TT Series Round 5 (and new TT bike)

After what seemed an age of not racing, though in reality only a few weeks, lots of training seems to make you feel as though it has been ages since you last raced. I had actually raced the Wednesday before the TT series race, though that was just to get the legs used to the feeling of being hammered on a short duration TT again. It obviously worked as even with still tired legs and not being totally aero (forgot my TT helmet), I managed to set a course PB.

It was also the last race on my old reliable TT bike, I had got a new TT frame, but hadn't built it up, though it was built up and ready to go before the TT Series race. The new bike is a Scott Plasma 3 Premium, and it rides like a dream. I have never had a carbon bike before and I was surprised just how much of the road buzz seems to be eliminated. Hopefully this will be good news on the longer TT's where minimising any extra source of fatigue is helpful.

Pic of new TT Bike

 

After a couple of test rides on the new bike, it was up to Worcester for Round 5 of the TT Series, I knew the course pretty well, as it is the first part of the Beacon RCC Little Mountain TT course (the nicer part of the course as well). I did a ride around it on the new bike, and was really happy of how the bike handled on the fast twisting descents.

 

For some reason there was a few riders who were DNS, in fact the 2 seeded riders in front of me were both DNS, it meant that with 2 min intervals between the seeded riders, the next rider in front of me started 6 mins before me (no carrot to chase this time). The course starts uphill which is always slightly tricky, you are full of adrenaline and it is so easy to really overcook yourself, even though there is some downhill recovery, it still takes a bit of a balancing act to get up to speed as quick as possible, but without blowing the doors off completely.

 

Once over the worst of the hill, there was a chance for a quick breather, but even then I wanted to press on as best I could. Power delivery seemed pretty good, and in fact it just feels better on the new bike. With a bit of a tailwind it was fairly fast for the next few miles as the road gently undulated and the feeling on the bike was good. Eventually turning onto the A443 and the road back to Great Witley, I started to notice the wind just that little bit more, and although never really a full on headwind, it was just nagging enough to start sapping the speed. This was combined with the last 4-5 miles gradually heading uphill. With the tiredness starting to bite the last 2 miles felt like 20 miles if I am honest. I was doing similar power to the midweek 10, but doing it for almost twice the time, so not surprising it felt very challenging.

 

Finally seeing the finish marshals in the distance I just tried to empty the tank, a sub 37 min ride would have been nice but that time slipped past as the finish line never seemed to be getting closer. One final uphill effort and I crossed the line to record 37:13 for the 16.7 miles. Fairly happy with the power, and very happy with my effort, like I say after lots of endurance training these shorter harder efforts feel a little bit alien to me at the moment.

 

On getting back to the HQ I saw that I had won the Vets (On Actual Time) by nearly 2 minutes, 2nd place was shared between Geoff Platts and Rob Nicholls with a time of 39:09. That's 4 wins out of 4 for the series, and I just need one more good result to win the Vets Series.

 

Picture courtesy of Kimroy Photography

 

Here is a link to the CTT report of the event.

 

 

Next up is my real big target event of the season the RTTC National 12 Hour Championship on Sunday, I am hoping to go at least 1 place better than the National 100 and hopefully win a National medal of some colour. As always with a 12, it is a tough race where anything could happen, so hopefully I will have a trouble free race and set a good mileage. With good nutrition from Torq Fitness I should do better this year than previous years, build up has been really good, and hopefully with better fuelling I won't struggle towards the end as I have done previously.