Unfortunately the good old G10/42 is not quite up to the job (or at least I don't have the ability to go that fast on it yet
) so I decided to give the President's 10 a miss and go course-chasing. (I hear that my bike managed to win - well done Dominic - although I'll want the bike back now you're going far too quickly 
).
Without really considering the logistics I sent off an entry to a 10 on Levens run by the Wigan Wheelers. I'd heard Levens was a fast course - 'super-fast' to use the CW terminology and Wigan was about a 3 to 4 hour drive away.
Startsheet arrives and realise course is nowhere near Wigan but somewhere in the middle of the Lake District. The thought of going that far was absurd. A little closer inspection however revealed that I was no.176 on the startsheet with one Mr B Wiggins off at no.180. In what other sport can a run of the mill competitor get to pit themselves against an olympic champion - all for the price of £6 plus petrol.
Unfortunately I hadn't told my wife that I was going to the Lake District to ride in a 25-minute race. By Thursday all thoughts of racing were off. No way was I going. On Friday the Metcheck weather forecast showed that magic symbol - a wind symbol with a '0' next to it. That evening the wife relented - I had permission to go (although I suspect I won't be racing again this season
).
Didn't get much sleep. Adrenaline had started to build up and there was still nearly 24-hours to go. This was a chance to truly compare myself to a real 'pro'. Same road 4 minutes apart, he would have no excuses if I beat him
Left home at 10.00 am and arrived at the HQ at just after 4pm - traffic
Cut my normal 1-hour warm-up to 30 minutes and toddled off to start.
See Bradley warming up (well actually he seemed to be stopping for a pee
) he looked damn fast. I had a 4-minute start but would it be enough?
Arrive at the start and off I go. Hadn't had time to drive the course so it was a voyage of discovery. Lovely downhill start spinning my 56x11 top gear at 95rpm. The rest of the course was pretty flat. Slight headwind out - the Metcheck '0' had been a lie - but only just noticeable.
One odd thing - spectators
Although they all still seemed to be looking back down the road as I went past 
Legs feeling good and unusually no need to push too much. In fact most of the first half was spent telling myself to calm down as my powermeter regularly crept up towards 400W which is well beyond my red line.
A really good turn where you could keep pedalling and stay on your tri-bars all the way round and then I was heading back.
Still no sign of Brad but then there he was looking far too quick. Quick look at the watch - he was about 2m 40 seconds behind me. He'd started 4 minutes down so he'd taken 1m 20 seconds out of me in 5 miles and I thought I was motoring
Time to extract a digit. Slightly more cheers from the spectators on the way back (or was Wiggins catching me?). Caught my 2 minute-man at 7.5 miles and had my minute-man in sight. Caught my minute man just before the finish but died as I went past him, he was straight back past me to finish about 2 seconds in front of me. Never mind, had made up 58 seconds on a '5' so my time should be good.
Slowly make way back to car park - rumour is BW has done 17.58. Change and go to HQ, cup of tea then results board. It's true BW is the first rider to go under 18 minutes for 10 miles in an open time trial. And I was there! And he didn't catch me!!
Junior record is also equalled (19.13) by Steve Burke (?) but won't get his name on the records as he failed to beat it - poor bloke where did he lose that second
Look at my time - totally chuffed. 19.53, over a minute off my pb and faster than next year's target time of 20.25
I can have next season off now Finish third in the Seniors event as well, my highest finish in an open event. The prize money will cover about a quarter of the petrol costs
Only the drive home to do... Why???
