It was a trip up to deepest darkest Norfolk (well not that dark really, it was a beautiful day), for round 3 of the TT series. Being an afternoon race it meant a far more relaxed day for me, though a very early start still, as I took the family and the Mother in Law to see a relative in Kings Lynn whilst I was racing.
The week had been a bit of a mixed bag training wise, and I must admit too not feeling 100% on the day. I think the weeks of training had started taking their toll on me, and I felt slightly jaded. The glorious sun did help however, though the wind was a little blustery on some of the exposed roads.
I did a recce lap, always a good thing to do with a more technical course, and this one was in a circuit, so it is good to know where the wind is going to be a hindrance. On the recce lap I tried my 90mm wheel, and quickly decided it certainly wasn't the one to use, trying to keep it in a straight line whilst on the base bar is not a good sign, even though the wind never really felt that bad. I do wonder if it is the best wheel to go with my forks, but I will try on less windy events and see what it is like then.
On the recce lap, my legs started feeling a bit better, and alot of the achiness seemed to go, so I was happy with that. The course itself was a great little course, 23.6 miles of single carriageway roads (well about 0.5 mile at the start of DC, but still quiet), with some undulations and turns to keep it interesting. This was also one of the rare occasions all competitors did the same distance, normally the seniors do a longer distance. It was a good chance then of comparing myself to some of the seniors, and seeing how close I could get to Matt Bottrill's time. After riding the course I thought a 29 mph ride might be possible, as it just seemed a fast flowing course, and the wind would be most helpful for the last few miles of the course.
It was a fast start, which was basically straight onto the DC section, and whilst a headwind and quiet it was still fast with it being downhill slightly. Felt good to start off with and gradually wound it up over the first few miles, the starting effort (just a wee bit too hard LOL) started to tell quite soon, and with some residual fatigue from the heavy training weeks, my legs started to suffer and soon found keeping the power up a more challenging affair.
Being last off, I didn't have to worry about getting passed, but I still wanted to make sure I kept the speed up, so my main competitor Andy Perkins, didn't start pulling out time on me. With him starting 2 mins ahead, I was never in the position to see him ahead, and as the course was a circuit never had the chance for time checks when passing each other. This is where things started getting more difficult, I could see that my power wasn't as good as it could be, and although the speed was decent, and not far off what I thought was possible, I started feeling that I would struggle to maintain the effort. Once on the A134, and with more of a side wind I felt the speed pick up again, and although still struggling a little it just felt a little easier, I had a good period of 35+ mph going towards the final turn for the final tailwind leg. Speed at this point was near the 29 mph mark, so I was hopeful with a final flourish I might achieve my target.
I don't normally have fluid and gels for a 25 mile, but with the hotter temps I had decided on a bottle and gel, this proved to be a good choice, as after I had a gel at about the 12 mile mark, I started to feel a little better, and managed to pick up the effort for the final few miles to the finish. The last few miles proved to be a good few miles, though the effort was starting to tell even more, with very painful legs and the average speed starting to dip below the 29 mph I really wanted, with the final few miles being uphill and with rapidly tiring legs I knew the target was out of reach, but I pushed on as hard as I could. I can around the final bend to see the checkered board and just gave it all I had, I stopped the Garmin and saw 28.5mph average, close but no cigar.
After a gentle warm down to the HQ, I wasn't sure how I had done overall, it was a quick ride, but I was expecting others to have gone quicker than my time. I checked some of the senior times, and saw Matt Bottrill had done a 30 mph ride, and that my Garmin time wasn't a bad time at all. After all the times had been put up, I was pleasantly surprised to see I had won the Veterans event again, but I was also 2nd fastest overall, though still some 3.5 minutes down on Matt. My 50:35 was 1:12 faster than Andy Perkins, so it gives me 2 out of 2 for the series.
Very happy with the result, but slightly disappointed of how I felt on the bike, certainly not one of the no chain days you get once in a while. Really enjoyed the course as well, we should have more of these about, challenging, fast and above all safe. Hopefully how I was feeling is just tiredness from the last few weeks, and hopefully things will pick up a bit in the next few weeks. I have a 50 this weekend, first of the BBAR events, and then the last TT series race for a while a week later
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