Another first 10m TT - Not quite as quick as the others!

rls

I did my first 10m TT in 15 years on Sunday. It was on a windy and slightly hilly course at Culloden, starting and finishing near the famous battlefield. I turned up at the registration with my 15 year old Giant Pelaton Superlite, with a new addition of Bontrager Aero bars that I'd spent about an hour getting into the correct position on the Saturday morning. I'm 6' tall with reasonable width shoulders so sat the arm pads quite wide to allow the air to flow through as well as around me. I'd also lowered my stem angle (adjustable Ritchey) to bring me down a bit further and felt pretty comfortable. I did carry a couple of CO2 canisters and spare tube in a seat pack, just in case, but other than that I carried no bottle and wore a tight fitting top with no pockets.

I was starting 12th out of 37 and didn't really know what I would manage on the day. I have only been training since February, but had done a bit of racing and time trialling in the 90s where I once set a PB of 24:24 for a 10 in perfect conditions on a flat course. I have been doing some casual running, orienteering and cycle commuting in the intervening time.

I set off and averaged around 28mph for the outward leg, with the wind behind me, it felt brilliant, but I knew there would be some payback at the turnaround. The course felt hilly compared to the 10's that I used to do and going back the wind was consistent and punishing, my speed dropping to 14mph in places. I was overtaken just before the turn and then a further 3 times before finishing. I crossed the finish line in 29:32 and was happy to beat my speculative goal of 30 minutes. All the people that had overtaken me completed in 24/25 mins so I wasn't too worried and plan to be up with them in a few months time.

In February I was pushing average speeds of 13/14mph, so to be able to go out now and average nearly 21mph on a windy and hilly course is absolutely brilliant. My speed has come on a lot in the last 2 months alone, partly due to getting out with the Forres cycling club, including keeping up for as long as I can on their weekly chain gang.

I thought I'd post to show that you don't have to set a fast time to join in and have fun. All the other posts I see on here seem to be people doing around 25 minutes, of course I plan to get there at some point, but I really enjoyed this TT and it was a great benchmark for my performance...and 8 people finished behind me!

danowat

Nice one, good to see people getting back into / trying out TT's 8)

markos1963

danowat wrote:

Nice one, good to see people getting back into / trying out TT's 8)

+1

It's great to see peolpe having a go at TTs, I think they are a great way of getting into racing cheaply and having some fun.
I love it when people turn up on any type of bike. I have seen MTBs, hybrids, tandams, trikes and tandam trikes at TT's and all have been welcomed and had a good go at it.