Sunday was a 19 mile time trial. The first round of the National Rudy Project Time Trial Series. I finished 6th in a time of 42.29 (26.4mph)
It was a perfect day for cycling. Warm enough to dispense with legwarmers (a good job as I managed to bring 1 legwarmer, plus 1 armwarmer).
The course was excellent a rolling quite road through a few sleepy Northamptonshire villages. Hardly any cars overtook me and it was very quiet. It was not very technical, but there were plenty of corners and gradual inclines to think about.
I started off number 90 (11.30). Matthew Bottrill (previous years winner) was two minutes behind me. One of my main goals was to finish less than two minutes behind him, which didn’t quite work out.. The first outward section went quite well. There were some sections which were quite fast. On the way back, it felt harder work. A gentle headwind and several long drags seemed much harder work, now your legs were tired. It made me a little more respectful of next weekends Circuit of the Dales (50 miles around Yorkshire Dales). I’d love to do this under 2 hours (25mph), but it will be hard.
A bit of Bling – Matt Bottrill’s speed machine.
Interesting saddle.
Although the field was small, there were many good cyclists, such as Sam Harrison (international rider) Jeff Jones (BBAR). In the battle of the hill climbers, Gunnar Gronlund finished just ahead of me, and I finished just ahead of Matt Clinton. Bex Slack was fastest lady. Geoff Platts was fastest Vet, with John Woodburn 2nd. The race was very well organised and marshalled.
| Result – senior men |  |
| Pos | Rider | Club | Time | N1 | N2 | N3 |
|
1
|
Matthew Bottrill
|
drag2zero.com
|
00:40:12
|
M
|
27.910
|
|
|
2
|
Sam Harrison
|
100% M E
|
00:40:26
|
E
|
27.749
|
|
|
3
|
Jeff Jones
|
drag2zero.com
|
00:40:52
|
M
|
27.455
|
|
|
4
|
James Coleman
|
Witham Wheelers C C
|
00:42:04
|
M
|
26.672
|
|
|
5
|
Gunnar Gronlund
|
R S T Racing Team
|
00:42:15
|
M
|
26.556
|
|
|
6
|
Tejvan Pettinger
|
Sri Chinmoy Cycling Team
|
00:42:29
|
M
|
26.410
|
|
|
7
|
Matt Clinton
|
Mike Vaughan Cycles
|
00:42:44
|
M
|
26.256
|
|
|
8
|
Scott Walker
|
M G Décor Team Carbon Bikes
|
00:43:25
|
M
|
25.843
|
|
|
9
|
Josh Teesdale
|
Team Jewson U K
|
00:44:10
|
E
|
25.404
|
|
|
10
|
Ben Hallam
|
Bespoke Cycling
|
00:45:34
|
M
|
2
|
A note on Timetrialling.
Unfortunately, time-triallists tend to prefer racing on busy dual carriageways to get faster times for 10s and 25s. I don’t quite understand this. Also there are too many fatalities on these busy dual carriageways. I would always prefer to ride on this kind of course. If it was up to me, I would make qualification for national 10 and National 25, dependent first on points from a National / Regional series like the Rudy Project, and only second on Pbs. This would give less incentive to chase artificially fast times.
An Interesting Field
Warming up for the race, I came across this interesting plaque. It was the first place to successfully test radar detection of planes. This invention was to prove vital in the Battle of Britain.
Field
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