Antelope 3-up TTT

[Andrew G]

Just how much fun can you have as part of an all male lycra clad threesome?

[size=150]Lots .[/size]

I was really looking forward to this as I've always fancied doing a team time trial and it was not a disappointment.

I drove myself and PVT up and we met Jon at the HQ, had a chat with the A Team (George, Dom, and Sylv) and then finally decided we'd better actually have some form of practice as we'd not had the chance before.

We decided on a 30 second to 1 minute rotation and riding a bit further out and dropping off the front left so we didn't have any riders suddenly popping out in front of any cars as they pulled off the front. The run down to the start and up and down the lane and everything seemed to be working smoothly enough . I suggested as the least experienced TTer of the three I should start off and then they'd be able to adapt to my start, in case they started quicker than I normally do and I had to charge on to the back, no complaints and it seemed to work okay.

The course was 1km down a feeder road on to the lap, which was done twice, to make 50kms in total. It was a back road course rather than dual carriageways so the terrain was a bit undulating with a few drags, nothing that bad though and you could roll round it happily. There was a bit of a nagging head wind on quite a bit of the course though.

Jon did some longer turns as Paul left him out there on a couple of occasions, on drags , but I think we did a pretty good job. Smooth work all the way round staying nice and tightly together. In the last couple of miles Paul stayed on the back and nudged Jon and I through to 2-up to the finish. I thought he must be suffering a bit and I felt good so happy to oblige. Crossing the finish line he noticed that his rear tub was squashy so must have picked up a slow puncture about 2 miles out - he'd said it felt a bit laboured towards the end and this would explain it. Fortunately it was so close to the finish Jon and I could 2up to the line with Paul behind and able to keep up on his slowly deflating tub so I don't think it cost us any time.

A fantastic event and I really, really enjoyed myself. Back at the HQ I thought we had a pretty good time in and could hold our heads up. We finished with a 1:17:10 (24.3mph). George, Dom, and Sylv clocked 1:13:03 (25.6mph) and the leaders (Artic and a very fast team) as we left had a 1:04:57.

[Marek]

Good job team A and B, team time trials are great fun.

Cheers

Marek...

[Snoop Doug]

Cooooool. Jealous...not arf! Let's get a few more teams planned in for this one next year eh. Well done folks, and a nice write up too

[Dominic]

Report write up from the organiser copied from timetriallingforum:

Many of the teams were in agreement that the NE wind was the best direction for the course, and this was certainly a factor in the old course record figures being beaten by three teams.

First to improve the old record were the Arctic Premier trio of Danny Axford, Darren Barclay and David McGaw, with their 1.4.57 taking more than a minute off the previous mark. Their early start time meant that the majority of the seeded teams already knew what they had to beat before they started.

Meanwhile, the student championships were next to be resolved, with Leeds University retaining their title with 1.7.39, keeping ahead of Cambridge and Oxford.

Unfortunately, the Plowman Craven team were non-starters as Tony Gibb was ill, and so it was left to Shorter Rochford RT (Charles McCulloch, Adam Duggleby & Mark Holton) to slug it out with Sigma Sport (Steve Golla, Wouter Sybrandy & Jerone Walters). The Shorter team came in with a fabulous new record of 1.3.33, and it was then all eyes on the Sigmas. They produced another great performance, but couldn't quite repeat last year's victory, their time being 1.4.19.

Fastest team of ladies was from a3crg (Lesley Walkling, Sally StLeger & Danuta Tinn) with 1.21.38, although the Chelmer team featuring former BBAR Sue Gray were only slightly slower, despite riding almost all of the race with only two riders. Second ladies team (with three riders finishing!) was from Ful-On Tri, with Emma Williams, Jessica Taylor & Natalie Creswick. They were less than a minute ahead of the fastest student team of women, who were from Cambridge (Rachel Fenton, Willow Kemp & Hannah Brice).

The sun shone, the wind wasn't strong, and people enjoyed the day (once again, getting the chance of some sunbathing on the nearby playing fields). Unfortunately there were several crashes, mainly due to touching wheels, but injuries and damage didn't seem to be serious.

As they left, most people were already talking about how they would do better next year!


Provisional Result

£225 Shorter Rochford (McCulloch, Holton, Duggleby) 1.3.33 (course record)
£165 Sigma Sport (Golla, Walters, Sybrandy) 1.4.19
£135 Arctic Premier (Axford, McGaw, Barclay) 1.4.57
£120 Leeds Uni (King, Dales, Tunnicliffe) 1.7.39
£105 Cambridge Uni (Ahearn, Nichols, Hawkins) 1.8.03
£90 VC St Raphael (Sykes, StLeger, Horner) 1.8.24
£75 Oxford Uni (Elzinga, Weatherall, Martin) 1.8.54
£60 Cambridge Uni (Third, Holt, Zak) 1.9.58
£45 North Hampshire RC (Graham, Onslow, Girvan) 1.10.28
£30 a3crg (Dyer, Lovell, Ponting) 1.10.44

Women
£90 a3crg (Walkling, StLeger, Tinn) 1.21.38
£60 Ful-On Tri (Williams, Creswick, Taylor) 1.27.42

BUCS Championship
Gold: Leeds Uni (King, Dales, Tunnicliffe) 1.7.39
Silver: Cambridge Uni (Ahearn, Nichols, Hawkins) 1.8.03
Bronze: Oxford Uni (Elzinga, Weatherall, Martin) 1.8.54
Women
Gold: Cambridge Uni (Fenton, Kemp, Brice) 1.28.26

[Dominic]

Seeing as none of my team mates have written a report I will:

I was dreading this all week, what with time off the bike and Sylv and George going so well. We all travelled up in the team bus and had a discussion about what we were going to do and more importantly how we were going to do it. Got there with plenty of time and drove round the course. This had me worried the minute we turned into the little lanes and the traffic calming measures in some of them. Don't even mention the narrow humpbacked bridge with a junction on the other side. (with George signalling to a driver on the 2nd lap)

After getting changed, meeting up with Paul, Jon and Andrew and a bit of banter we decided to go for a practice. Did some through and off at a steady pace and got a few things ironed out, apart from my legs which felt shocking Went back to the van put my helmet on took off my jacket and off to the start. We had agreed that we would do a steady first lap and up it after that. The first lap was indeed steady (my legs were feeling good which was a pleasant suprise) and it felt like absolute bliss, speeding along everything ticking along nicely. Hammering along the tailwind section was absolutely superb and I felt like the dogs danglies. Sylv as super smooth and strong and George, whose wheel I was following, his disk was just making the best sound. George was also shouting at all the teams we were passing which was very amusing. Finished the first lap, Sylv tells me that we did it in 37 mins and George says we should start trying now, SH!T.

That I guess is why they are fast and I am not. That extra little pace and I was struggling at any slight uphill and into the wind. Sylv quite rightly came through a couple of times when I was slowing things up and I gritted my teeth and got back on to George's wheel. In true tester style I found that I couldn't go round corners as quick as they could and that certainly cost us some time. But yet again the tailwind section was sublime, all of us in top gear (bear in mind Syvl was on a 58 tooth chainring) hammering along, absolutely awesome. Tried for a three abreast finish that felt to me like I was sprinting for the world championships and it was done. Fantastic.


Next year when I am fitter it will be even better. If we look out for this again next year and try to enter a few teams. The standard was wide and varied from the elite to quite frankly commuter types but everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves. With a club of our size we could quite easily enter 4 or 5 teams It was superbly organised, the cake was good ( I bought six pieces) and above all it was fun. Yee Ha!!

A big thanks to George and Sylv for dragging me round

[Sylv]

You did really well Dom! And thanks for the cake.

Really enjoyed that, great fun. Despite no practise we drilled it pretty well I thought. We did lose time at junction and tight corners, at first I kept pedalling around corners but then realised it was creating a 10m gap every time Also I realised I shoulnd't be counting on the marshalls to signal oncoming cars at junctions as I nearly got ran over the first time I went without looking!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/3901577 love those HR spikes typical of the through-and-off

[Dominic]

Sylv,

Did you get all that data from your watch? If so it's superb (says the man who is not into gadgets)

[Andrew G]

Sarah Brooke's nice [url=http://www.sarahbrookephotography.co.uk/portfolio54655p2.html]photographs[/url] here.

Pages 2, 3, 4, and 5 for the two Addiscombe teams. Thought I'd managed to get make sure I was on the front for both passes but the second one got taken as I was coming through so didn't get there in time .

The A team might have been faster but we were always pedaling in synchronisation .

George, what are you like .

[Snoop Doug]

top pics guys, they really cap it all off

[Sylv]

George you numpty everytime you're losing 1m on me to pull your funny face
At least I'm keeping my hands on the bars to pull a "cool" sign

[Jon H]

Not much to add really, a top afternoon's entertainment all round. The time flew by much quicker than doing a solo TT; when your concentrating on holding a wheel, and working out when to come through or peel off there's not much time for the mind to wander as it can do when riding solo. Paul, Andrew and I seemed to work pretty well together with no major gaps appearing at any point, although like Dom I need to learn how to corner as gaps did open at a few of the junctions. Good job it was only 50k; another couple of km and PVT would have been riding on the rim.