Saturday was my last time trial of the year. 21.17 on a hilly 10 mile course on H10/3a. It wasn’t a bad time. I was just 3 seconds behind winner and 2 seconds behind second place. Sean Yates (ex tour de france riders) was also riding with his son. I think something happened to Sean Yates’s bike during race as he was a dnf. It’s quite an interesting course though I got stuck behind a car who himself was stuck behind a slower rider. Anyway, the time was 30secs quicker than last year. When I got home, the time trial bike went up in loft until next year. There’s only hill climbs left.
Sunday was a two stage hill climb promoted with great enthusiasm by Alex Laycock and Warwickshire R.C. The first hill was Saintbury (about 1.2 miles). I spent a good 40 minutes warming up. My legs felt a little stiff after racing on Saturday (and a week layoff probably didn’t help).
Saintbury hill in the Cotswolds.
On Saintbury hill climb
I paced the effort quite well on the first climb. A good steady pace on the steeper section at the bottom, so you could increase pace when it levels off nearer the top. At the top there was a headwind which made it a little more difficult. I did most of the hill in the saddle. My finish time was 5.52.0 – which wass 1 second quicker than last year and I believe a new course record. It was good enough for first place ahead of Matt Clinton and James Dobbin.
Two hours later was more hill climb pain with Dovers Hill. It’s always hard doing a second hill climb both physically and mentally. It’s also hard to know what to eat before a race 2 hours away. I had an apple and energy bar and spent an hour on the turbo warming up with some energy drink.
Again I seemed to spend most of the climb in the saddle, when I got out of saddle I seemed to lost the rhythm. My time of 4.03 was 0.9 seconds quicker than the same event last year. and about 7 seconds slower than when I did national championship 2010 on this course. It was quite a good time given head wind and it was after morning race.
For the rest of the season I’ve entered quite a few hill climbs, apart from one weekend when I’m in New York.
Photo top Micks Dad from 2010
Related
- Hill climbs
- Cycling Weekly did write up on hill climb.
No comments yet.