Luckily with work I had to go to Nottingham during the week leading up to the event, so I was able to take a quick drive around the course on my way home, the course was a mixture of country lanes and a fairly major A road, with a steep descent after about 8 miles. We would be going down this hill at some speed in the race I felt. It was good to see the course before the day, at least I could plan things in my mind.
On getting to the HQ I decided to do a lap of the course on my bike to get to know the course whilst riding, and to get a bit of a warm up in. First thing the wind was light and with training wheels on, the course felt pretty quick, though to get to the top of the big hill meant climbing effectively for 8 miles, though it was an up and down rolling affair really. On my recce lap I felt able to push pretty hard down the big hill and it felt pretty comfortable, so was hoping for even more speed during the race.
As the seniors went off followed by the juniors and disabled riders, you could see the wind getting stronger and more gusty in nature. I had expected this and with the top veterans running 2 mins apart at least we all had the same conditions.
I had elected to use my new 90mm deep section front wheel, as from where I was although it was windy, it didn't seem too bad. This turned out to not be that smart a decision from me, after less than a mile I was blown all over the place, and found it quite a struggle with the gusty crosswind. As I turned at the first turning things got better however and with the wind being more from behind me I was able to keep up a good pace, this section was a gradual uphill, so I decided to just trying and up the power and keep the speed as high as possible. At least with every slight downhill it meant a nice micro recovery period.
In full flight
Picture courtesy of Ben Wimpory
The next turn was after about 5 miles and it was a good tailwind for the final slog to the top of Broughton Hill on the A606, I felt I was going well, power was good and felt on top of things. Speed was good as well even with it being uphill. The next part I was hoping would be my favourite part, the cracking descent of Broughton Hill, unfortunately as I was now again getting crosswinds it became a bit of a nightmare, and keeping the damn bike straight was proving difficult and at the higher speeds combined with the crosswind the wheel wobbles started again. My speed down it in the race was about 5mph slower than my early morning attempt, though getting to the bottom without killing myself seemed a better idea than going for a speed record. Once at the bottom of the hill with some shelter from the hedges I was able to get back on the power again and try and keep the speed high before I turned again towards the finish but this time I would have a stonking headwind.
I had tried to save something for this last section as it was mainly uphill and I knew it would be a headwind, also the surface was not as good as the main road, so it had plenty of things trying to sap the speed you had already built up. As I turned for the last 3 miles or so, the effort was starting to tell, and with the headwind it just seemed a real slog, the average speed was just falling away and no matter how much effort I put in the speed just seemed to continue to drop off. The last 2 minutes however with the road flattening out I just gave it everything I had, and thankfully the speed increased and coming around the last bend I was hoping to see the finish about 100 metres away, unfortunately the finish was a bit further away, perhaps only another 200 metres or so, but boy this seemed to be alot further when fully on the limit.
I had hoped beforehand that a 32 min lap was possible, but with the wind I wasn't quite sure when I started, in the end I did manage a 32 min lap, as I crossed the line with a 32:25. I was happy about the race, but unsure as to how well I would have done against my main competitor, Andrew Perkins. I did the usual 10-15 mins of riding gently to warm down and ease off the legs before heading to the HQ, it is always during this time you think about how you could have approached the race differently, and I always think I could have gone that little bit harder. In all honesty though I pushed as hard as I could, and I had given it my best shot.
On looking at the results I was very pleased to see that I had won the veterans event by 33 secs from Andrew, although certainly not a trouble free race with the wind I was able to do enough to win. The most stunning ride of the day was by Matt Bottrill though as he managed to smash the course record, each of his 2 laps (senior event was 2 laps of the same course) was faster than my own, the guy is just on another level.
Well happy to start the series off with a win, just got to try and do it for the remainder of the events. Next one is in 2 weeks time in Norfolk, not sure how hilly the course will be, but I hope it is as much fun as this course was. Certainly be back on that course again, really enjoyed it, and a massive thanks to Leicestershire RC for promoting the event.
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