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.