Tour of Sussex - Stage 1

[-Adam-]

Ouch, that was the hardest 10mins of my life!

This evening was stage one, the 4 mile prologue individual TT. My first ever TT, and i tell you, the course was far from flat. Up, down, up, down and up again was the order of the day. Making it nigh on impossible to get into any kind of a rythm, nor gauge a suitable pace.

It was just a case of hammering it up, hammering it down whilst trying to get the heart rate down a bit (Very difficult at 40mph). Then the final mile just seemed to drag on forever.

Started off quite quick as it was downhill, got to the first rise and sprinted up it. Which hurt. Kept the pace high while descending, then got to the second hill on the outward leg and knowing there was a longer descent after it, hammered that one too. Then on the way down to the turning point i was in a really low position flying down hill. However i reckon i could have fone down faster, maybe lost a few seconds here to the winner. Round the roundabout and it was back up the afore mentioned descent. Man it hurt, must have been a good 1/4 of a mile but when your tickers doing 190bpm it feels like 40km!

Got up that eventually coasted down hill again while trying to recover a little. Then another rise, followed by a brief descent onto the final drag up to the finish. I glanced at the clock, 8m30s. I was aiming for 10m so gave it everything to get inside. After what seemed like an hour i was home. And as you said Andrew, i had nothing left for a sprint, so i think i went pretty hard.

Rode straight to my car, and layed on the lawn next to it for about 3/4 mins while my body recovered from what was easily the hardest sustained effort ever made! Then hopped back on the rollers for a descent warm down.

So 10min 8secs, not bad i thought for my first Flat (ish) TT. Im definately more interested in the idea of TTing after this evening. The winning time was 9m 29s apparently which left me lying in about 13th position, of about 70 starters. Which im fairly pleased with. I reckon had i had the chance to properly reccy the course then i might have gained another 10 seconds here and there. But 39 seconds down is okay by me. Im hoping i can climb better that some of the guys who beat me tonight as tomorow is an uphill finish... So maybe a top ten GC finish is realistic.

So fingers crossed.

Adam

p.s stu, you should see some of the guys in the junior race! lots of Glendene, a guy from Recycling Team and many more that look seriously strong!