Your best ever TT...

peejay78

that's the one i did, and i've got more climbing from my garmin according to the totals.

anyway, it was long, draggy, and fairly hard going.

BeaconRuth

peejay78 wrote:

i did the welsh one, had 650 metres of up. really sapped the strength, long and draggy...

Did you expect a 100-mile TT course to be anything other than 'long'?!

Ruth

ps. I've fond memories of riding the event 6 years ago.

Surfr

I didn't find it too hilly really. It just seemed that the 'hills' coincided with head winds to push the issue home a little. I'm from Mid Wales though so the concept of 100 miles and only 500 odd metres of climbing is pretty bizarre to me. I put a 100 mile training ride together in preparation for the Welsh 12 hour and ended up with 1500m of climbing on the flattest roads in the area.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/93358558

pickled

New 10 mile TT PB for me tonight.
23:58 allbeit on a fast course. Felt good to break a 25 average though.
Next up for me is my first 25. So another PB in the offing!

Fixed Wheelnut

pickled wrote:

New 10 mile TT PB for me tonight.
23:58 allbeit on a fast course. Felt good to break a 25 average though.
Next up for me is my first 25. So another PB in the offing!

Well done, that's exactly the same as my pb I did three weeks ago, 23:58 on 97" fixed gear at the Gravesend CC evening 10
I can agree how great it is to break the 25mph barrier

pickled

Wow! That's just showing off! Well done mate. Not sure I'd want to try on a fixie. Using a road bike is bad enough!

a_n_t

Season over for me (moving house has put paid to that) but cant argue with a 22:02 10 and a 55:08 25 plus the club TT champion too!


Actually I can argue, should've had long 21 and 54!

RoadMeridaBen

Every open 10 i've tried this year on decent courses i've had a bloody cold lol, best 10 for me was a 22:48 on a windy day on a d/c course.
But i did a 23:17 on a hilly spoco 10 (got me 3rd, just :P) last sunday so i reckon theres a 21 to be had before the seasons over

25 in glyneath this sunday, only done it once so 53:29 to beat... looking at the weather its going to be a breezy one. Then the same course the following week and one more 10 and thats my first season overwith...gutted lol

peejay78

how was glyneath?

i thought it was a bit windy, to be honest. but quick enough. it's about as far from an 'honest' course as you could possibly find.

RoadMeridaBen

Struggled, the wind really picked up when i went out just after 12, was my 4th TT in a week so there wasnt much left in the tank :shock: 55:02 minute and a half slower than last time. Confirmed i need a new saddle i was on fire downstairs at the turn :P

Out again this sunday looks like a windy one again.

peejay78

yeah. i'm hoping the weather changes by then. i struggled with the wind, managed a 52.14, so can't complain too much, although i was hoping a 51 was within reach.

Jeff Jones

It looks dire on the R25/3 this weekend! I think last Sunday's pb might remain for a while, fresh legs notwithstanding.

peejay78

if it's anything like today... yeah.

damnation.

SBezza

Jeff Jones wrote:

It looks dire on the R25/3 this weekend! I think last Sunday's pb might remain for a while, fresh legs notwithstanding.

Got a hard choice to make on this one, do I travel all the way down from Kent, and then find the conditions are horrendous. Wonder if the conditions will be good enough to get a PB however, though I might not get my real target of a sub 50.

At least it would be a tailwind from the turn LOL

bexslack

As an event organiser I think it is VERY poor form to decide on whether to ride or not based on one's potential to PB.

The poor clubs that run the events on the Welsh course are always massively over subscribed and with 240 or so riders the marshalls will be out there in the rain and wind come what may.

I shall ride unless I feel my personal safety is a risk. My power meter will tell me if I've had a good ride - even if the clock says otherwise.

SBezza

Bex

The poor club has my money whether I ride or not. If I decide the conditions do not warrant a 8 hour round trip and the associated costs that go with it, that is my choice. There is also the safety aspect, ragging up and down a dual carriageway is dangerous at the best of times, let alone when it is soaking wet. I will have to make that choice based on info I have on the internet and the TV at 5am from Kent

I know it isn't a busy road, but all it takes is one driver to make a cock up. I have raced enough on DC's this year, nearly been taken out on several occasions, so I will make a choice based on what I feel, and not what I owe to the promoting club.

I have run a sportive for the last couple of years, where I have had over 10% of entries not turn up, it doesn't bother me, and it shouldn't really bother the organisor of a TT if 10% or more DNS. I will be running an open 10 next year, again it doesn't bother me if people have entered and then DNS I still have the entry fee.

Most of my races I don't worry too much about a PB, but I have entered this event to get a PB, there is no other reason to drag myself across the country. 25m TT's are not important to me. No doubt you will be going still as it is a BBAR qualifying event for you, as well as the chance to perhaps improve upon your own team comp record. My powermeter will tell me it was a crap ride compared to 25's earlier in the year as my FTP has fallen since concentrating on the BBAR

For the record I have only DNS 2 or 3 times in 3 years, and only one of those was due to me not being ill. It is not something I like doing

peejay78

the r25 is a PB course, pure and simple.

it's best to try and ride whatever the conditions, and i understand elements of bex's comments.

but i don't buy this 'poor clubs that run events on the welsh course' business. running a TT with 240 riders is quite a big event for a club and it raises their profile to have hutch, yourself and others riding.

and lastly, some of us can't afford a power meter. so the clock tells us the only version of the story we can read.

bexslack

I gather one of the clubs that promotes an event on the course will no longer be doing so next year which is a shame. Getting 400 or so entries in the post and turning away so many riders must be jolly timeconsuming. The admin associated with these popular events is far higher than for a normal Wobbly Wheelers race and I suspect the associated stresses are too...

Of course it's a course with PB potential... that's why we all enter events there!!! It's as dishonest as the day is long. But I think it attracts the best field outside the National 25, so people can measure their performances against top riders irrespective of the conditions....and with or without a powermeter!

That said, the weather forecast (34kph winds and rain) is so foul I won't feel safe out there so will be be DNSing. I feel really bad about it.

peejay78

agreed - any event with a full field or more is pretty time-consuming! that said, organising a fast 50 this year i had an enormous number of DNS, it was weather-related. it was a bit of a ballache, but i understood people's reasons for not travelling.

when it comes to hardriders and hillclimbs, these excuses don't really cut the mustard

the forecast is pretty scary.

bexslack

Have a safe ride Peejay... and SBezza if you make the journey...

peejay78

am riding u7b tomorrow. gotta love the graveyard in the rain and wind.

bexslack

Think I might race in Wales after all tomorrow.... Light rain and wind of 27kph is a whole lot better than previously forecast...

The organiser is going to hate me... I emailed him to say I wasn't racing yesterday and then emailed him again just now asking to be reinstated. Doh!

Jeff Jones

Weather looks ideal for PBs tomorrow, ie merely 20mph winds and light rain (bringing this somewhat back on topic) Hopefully see some of you there.

bexslack

Well I hope you all had a better day than me at the PTW 25!!!

I was really up for a big ride today as wind and rain typically bring out the best in me (as proven in this year's National 50 and 100!) and I have a new speedy bike.

However just before my start time (9.06) there was a torrential downpour creating vast amounts of surface water on the Rhigos road and very dangerous conditions. I rode down to the start.... Numbers 1-5 in front of me didn't show, so rather tearfully I made my apologies to the starters and came home. I didn't want to be the first one off in those conditions, particularly knowing I was likely to be putting time into my pursuers too. I believe there is safety in numbers on a DC course and I would have been very vulnerable out there...

Needless to say it appeared to brighten and dry up nicely soon after my start time so I'm sure other ladies recorded good times. For the record, Danuta Tinn (number 2) signed on, but also concluded it was too dangerous to ride for the early starters. What a shame they didn't delay the start, or slot us in a bit later.....

Jeff Jones

I don't blame you Bex. The whole morning was like that - if you were lucky you got to start just after a downpour and had a lull in the wind. If not you got lashed with rain and wind.

Hutch won it in 47'47 (and had a drenching), Bottrill 2nd in 48'17, then Simon Harradine in 48'59. Not sure if there were any others under 49mins.

I was off towards the end and managed 50'32 which might sneak me inside the top 10. Annoyingly it was a much better ride than last week in power terms, but I was 1'06 slower. Last week I got lucky with the conditions, this week not. Somewhat annoying but a good example of how conditions can dramatically effect results.

Not a candidate for my best ever TT. I think I've already done that this year

peejay78

don't feel quite so bad about the DNS.

the thread on the TT forum makes it sound like the first day of the Somme, but marginally more attritional.

SBezza

I was caught in the same downpour that got Hutch, and was doing pretty well up until that point, slower than I would have liked, but thought I might make enough of it up on the return leg to get a 51 again, but the downpour made visibilty almost non existant, and spent more time trying to clear my visor than concentrating on pedalling.

Spoke with Hutch afterwards and he said he almost had given up, as it was so bad, and I can kind of understand that, if my car at been at the HQ rather than the start it would have been a DNF for me, as I would have peeled in rather than finish.

I even asked Steve Batsford what the road conditions were like, and he said not too bad, which I agree with until that downpour, I could hardly see Hutch when he went past, let alone the road more than a few metres in front, only god knows if car drivers could see me.

Power wise not a bad race for me up until the turn, but due to the weather and taking it very easy on the turn and the RAB's saw power drop off on the return leg, though still not bad for the 1st 25 for quite a few months.

Bex I can totally understand your feelings, racing on DC's is bad enough without horrendous conditions, just glad it is a quiet DC, not sure what was worse, the downpour in Wales or the one at the National 100, at least I didn't get hailstones on Sunday