Birch 8 mile Time Trial No.2

Distance 8miles     Av Speed 22.4mph     Time 21.26

It's a really great way of building up your high end speed and the competitive nature takes your heart rate places the sunday ride just can't touch. That's the idea anyway so Im trying to do as many as possible after a really crap 2010.  So even though it was blowing a gale I ventured out for my warm up on my Time Trial bike and went back home after getting to the end of the street. Swapped the bike for Jamis and TT bars which I had already prep'd for the inevitable and set off again. Getting fed up of the winds and not being able to use my TT bike, thats 2+ weeks now. A couple of quick trips round the course should be alright but I punctured at the end of the first lap. I am getting so bloody fed up wit punctures too!. About 15 in the last month on different wheels/tyres/tubes. There's no constant, just bad luck. This time there was a slash in the tube about an inch long but nothing in the tyre. There was only one spare in my bag but luckiily I took 2 C02 carts as after the first inflation the innertube popped out over the rim. 12miles done and 10mins 'til the start. Only 2 of us there. At least it was sunny.

I was off first, a guy from ABC Centreville next and another guy from West Pennine came just after 7pm. By the first corner, 300yrds up the road the wind picked up ( as if it wasn't bad enough already) and it suddenly started to lash it down. Could it get any worse?  It didn't thank god except it stopped raining as soon as I finished. The corners had to be taken with extreme caution. Today I was mainly concentrating on pacing myself and limiting the losses of speed on the climbs as it reaches 7% ish in two seperate places. After lap one I got a split time shouted at me of 10mins 48secs. Second lap felt harder as I tired but managed to keep on the aero bars despite being flung side to side. 21.26 was the final time so second lap just a little quicker. My previous best was 20.58. The other two came in and were really disappointed with their times. Over a minute down on what they are used to. One guy got 22.04 and the other 22.30ish.  I kept the speed up due to having aero bars this week unlike last time and I felt stronger on the climbs and also got held up by two cars behind a slow cyclist. Very happy with my time on a very technical and slippy course.

Total distance cycled 25miles