Time Trial Update by Marek Siwicki

Marek had a double Time Trial weekend and brings us up to date with reports from both events

Saturday 3 July Crawley Wheelers 10m

A 2pm start time for the CW 10miler at Holmwood meant I could actually have a lie in, quite rare for a Time Trial.

Arrived with an hour before my start time and saw Chris Mcnamara, the favourite, warming up. I had a quick chat about his comeback to form after his crash early season.

I didn’t have a warm up turbo or anything, so I went for a ride around the lanes to get the blood flowing. Legs felt pretty good as I’d had a few days off the bike this week to be fresh for the weekend.

Saw Tom Seller from Oxted CC warming up, although he has a cold so was not feeling too confident. Also bumped into Mark Bashford from EGCC. Weather was looking like it could rain, felt a few drops in warm up, but we lucked out and it held off.

Last time I rode this course was on the ACC President’s 10, so I was keen to see if could beat the time I set as that was my 10 mile PB time.

Got to the start line and it was off. Onto the dual carriageway and I hit it pretty hard. There was a bit of a headwind on the way out so I was going to try and empty as much as I could in the first part, and then just hang on with the tailwind on the return.

Speed seemed pretty good and it was reasonably uneventful, I didnt have a minute man as he was a DNS.

After the turn and on the final roundabout i got caught behind a hesitant car which scrubbed a bit of speed off.

Got back going again and then into the hilly final section. Got to top of the hill and glanced at my garmin and could see my time was pretty good.

I could also see my 2 minute man. Spurred me on to nail the final section, which seemed to go on forever. Very fast final descent where I made use of my monster gears.

Managed to PB with a 20:35 and came 2nd overall with Christopher McNamara coming in first with a fantastic time of 19:48.

• 

Sunday 4 July 2021 Southborough and District Wheelers 25m

Early start for the event near Uckfield.  Left home and weather was pretty decent.  Was looking good. 

Got to HQ picked up my number and jumped into the back of the car to get ready.  As I started to get my TT suit on, the heavens opened and the car was being pounded by the rain.

Instead of warming up, I turned on the heated seats and put the radio on!  10 mins before my start time and I jumped on the bike and sprayed my way down to the start line.  

It was still raining but seemed to be calming down a bit.  I took the decision to ride with no visor which I think was a good choice.

A few minutes wait and then off I went.  Great fast start speed felt good, then got to first roundabout and I got confused, its a roundabout with two A roads that go off it and for some reason, in the heat of the moment I couldnt remember which way to go, so I went around the roundabout unsure and then decided that it must be straight on  as that was the direction I had been earlier in the season when I did this course 😂🤦‍♂️.

Back down into position and every other roundabout had about three people on it showing the way. Typical!  Anyhow, the roundabout incident was now in my head.  My minute man was now well out of sight.  I knew he was a fast rider, so I was hoping to try and use him as a carrot, but he was now too far ahead of me. 

I tried to keep the power down, but was pretty tentative on the roundabouts as I was worried about the very wet roads.  

Ended up with a 56:35, 34 seconds slower than my last time on this course.  And came 6th place, was 5 seconds behind 5th place.  That blooming roundabout, grrrrr.

Good learning experience, will definitely not use the visor in wet weather as that was so much better, and will definitely make sure I switch on my brain 🧠 next time.

Think I may need a new pair of white PONGO London socks as they got pretty dirty today 😂