I was up very early this morning (first rider off half an hour earlier than last year ) for a trip to the Q25/8 which is a single carriageway course at Challock in Kent. It's not a fast course as the long leg of the Y shaped course is nearly all drags and dips, but it's not a slow hilly Sporting one either. Probably about a minute slower than the Horsham course in equal conditions.
What happened to the weather
Got to HQ and joined others shivering in the chilly air as we put our bikes together. Then there was the wind . My word that is probably the windiest TT I've ever done, metcheck said it would be 20mph and it wasn't lying . It was also cold enough for thermal base layer, leg warmers, arm warmers, and long fingered gloves, like it was still winter .
I started off and down the first leg which was in to a bit of a cross/head wind, not terrible but slowing me down more than I'd have liked. I pushed on hoping that it wouldn't get any worse and picked up my 2, 3, and 4 minute people (two men, one on a trike, and one woman) on the way. Back to the joint of the Y and off on the long rolling leg with a lot of drags on it. On a reasonable day when it isn't blowing a hooley then you can squash these drags and roll over / through them. I went down here okay but knew I had the wind with me.
Okay then round then turn and in to the wind, yoinks I thought I was going to come to a standstill in places . The drags hurt more, and the flat was hard work. Even on the dips after the drags where I'd normally be in the 11 or 12 sprocket I was up in the 14 and 15 I was just honing in on someone else a little bit up the road when they punctured, so that made the catch a bit quicker . On the whole on this leg the wind really was murder, bang in your face or on the front of your shoulder and back at HQ everyone was laughing at the comedy gearing they'd had to use in place along it compared to normal.
As far as time goes it was a not what I'd like, at face value, 1.4.36 but in that wind it'll do and worked well for training if not for time. I didn't stay until the end as I wanted to get back. Although there were some of the faster chaps later on I left when there were times up for 59 or the 100 and only 2 had beaten the hour! There wasn't a lot on 1.0s either and 1.02s and 1.03s were pretty popular numbers on the board so all in not too bad a race for me. I'll probably end up in a similar sort of place as normal once all the others had come in, just with everyone on much slower times than they'd like .
I've got two 25s next weekend so can we please have some calmer weather. Please, pretty please.