Andover Wheelers 10mile TT

[Jon H]

I headed out to Hampshire today to ride a 10 mile time trial on the P613 course, which is mostly on the A303 near Andover. A pretty fast course, starting with a long gentle downhill leading onto the dual carriageway, then out to the turn consisting of two roundabouts and a flyover and back on the same road.

The warmest day of the year so far, and with not much wind, conditions were promising for fast riding. This was a "middlemarkers" event, the entry criteria being not faster than 22:30 in the last three seasons. With my PB being 23:13 I was in theory going to be one of the faster riders, but not enough to get a seeded number (I was no. 61).

So, onto the race. Put the hammer down and keep it there was the plan. Got into 54x12 as soon as I could and kept it there most of the way to the turn, hitting 38mph at one point. From about 3 miles I could see another rider up the road. Was it my minute man? Caught him at the turn, but it was my two-minute man, no.59. Well, I'd expected to catch him, so things were going to plan. Right, turn out of the way, time to get going again. Not quite as fast on the way back, mostly around 26mph, dropping to 23 on a slight drag near the end.

Stopped my watch as I crossed the line. 22:10 Woohoo, a PB by over a minute, that doesn't happen too often. But would it be fast enough to get into the prizes? Well, when my time went onto the results board it was fastest at that point, but then a 22:06 went up, then a 21:09 and a few other 21s. Think I just missed out on a prize but made the top 10.

[Andrew G]

Great time, sounds like you're flying this season. Hope the new Dolan is doing your form justice.

[ajay khandelwal]

Congratulations ! What an inspiring comeback from 2005

[Toks]

Well done Jon!!