Last Saturday was a 30 mile time trial on the A31 at Bentley. Bentley is a sleepy little village which was getting ready for the Jubilee celebrations in a typical English village kind of way. I’m not sure what they make of so many cyclists descending on their village every weekend. But, I guess we have been doing it even before 1953. In the early days of time trialling the 30 mile distance was more popular. Time trial districts and clubs often had their own 30 mile championship. Though in recent years, it’s fallen out of favour as people concentrate on the 25 mile TT, which has its own national championship and is widely considered the ‘blue ribband’ of time trialling. This, however, was the 30 mile championship of London West and it attracted quite a few of the top local riders.
Anyway it was my first attempt at this distance, so I would be able to claim a pb of sorts. After a relatively slow 10 mile TT the previous week, I rode with little expectation (which is always quite a nice way to ride). The first 10 miles was completed in a similar time to last weeks 10. The next 20 miles weren’t too bad. I was able to keep a strong pace and didn’t fade away. I finished in a time of 1.04.54. (average speed of 27.8mph). This was good enough for 8th place, behind the London Dynamo duo of R. Simmons (1:02:19) and M.Williamson (1:02:44). It was an improvement on the previous week, and hopefully, by the end of the season, I will be able to pick up another 1-2 mph.
The main thing is that I really enjoyed the race. I felt reasonably powerful and there was quite a sensation of speed for the race. I didn’t feel too tired at the end, though the cake had that irritating post race taste of lactic acid. It was also good to have got some cycling in before the weather turned on Sunday leading to a rather less dynamic day of watching boats slowly drift down the Thames in the rain.
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