East Surrey Hardriders – 11th

After yesterday I didn’t hold out too much hope for doing a decent time on this one today. 30 miles over undulating Surrey roads in 3 deg with a pretty brisk headwind for half the circuit, oh and an 8.41 start, not what Sundays were designed for I doubt!

Still, it was always going to be an interesting ride, and worst case is that its a decent 1 hour workout! There were a few known names of the domestic scene riding, Yates, Tadros, Berry (reigning champ and CR holder), Prebble, also Steve Irwin from our club, so it would certainly be a hotly contested race at the business end.

Truth be told my legs actually felt ok this morning despite yesterday and the 200tss I racked up (if you buy into that kind of thing). I got warmed up, and set off for the start line. A few things were different to my last outing on the TT bike, this was perhaps foolish, I put a new saddle on last night (adamo thing) and also it was the first time riding the new position I’d set up, which was drastically different to the previous, and all I had to reassure me it was ok was a 30 min on the turbo. Still, it felt ok in my warm up, certainly more aggressive, and tighter but rideable certainly, time will tell whether I prefer it or its quicker than the more comfortable position.

My minute man was Connal Yates was about to be pushed off, as it happens that was the last time I saw him until back at the HQ, not surprising give his current form! I got going and once out of the mucky lanes I felt OK, however it was then about 4 miles in that the fun and games began,first was my powermeter which got a bit of a soaking recently started acting up and just cut out for 5 minute periods which was very annoying; I was riding blind and given how much I usually rely on the power to pace these things it certainly was not the best. As I was riding I knew that perhaps I wasn’t going to produce my best power today, which was fine, however my left tricep really started to ache after about 10 miles and my right was fine, I couldn’t figure out why. Then I worked it out, every time I went over a vague hole a horrid noise sounded, what was happening was that each knock was moving the left aerobar down further and further and the noise was obviously it slipping, to boot the left elbow pad had slipped right down too (I only noticed this at the end) which meant my left arm was at a pretty horrid angle causing this ache. It wasn’t fun. I pulled the aero bar up by hand (5nm my arse trek!!!) and carried on but had to come out of the bars to stretch my arm every ow and again. It was about this point 13 or so miles that I gave up mentally to be honest, not what I normally do, but all these things added up. Headed down past our club ten turn and then turned onto the main road and I wasn’t looking forward to what was about to come – a headwind of horrid proportion and the hill into Rusper, which isn’t ideal on a TT bike 😀 given its gradient! But I got going over the top and was counting down the miles and looking forward to a tea.

I actually started to feel a little better in the last couple of miles, my mood was soon turned again as a Land Rover turned out on me despite me looking like a power ranger he obviously didn’t spot me! I dug deep and even maintaining my threshold felt hard (the powermeter did come to life for the last 5 or so miles) so I knew I was unlikely to trouble the top spots today.

Pulled back in and downed a coffee, Steve Berry’s winning time last year was just under 1.06, I did a short 1.11, as people came in it didn’t look too bad, but I could see people I have beaten before were taking time out of me, the big litmus test would have been Richard Prebble who raced with me yesterday and was in all the breaks I was, he eventually came in and had taken a minute out of me, which initially seemed about right given he took 20 secs from me at Redhill, but when Steve from our club came back he’d taken 50 secs from me compared to me taking 10 out of him at Redhill. However he had seemingly paced it very well and finished strong.

All told I was pushed out of the top 10 by a couple of seconds, and the final results were as below. Top ride by Steve Berry to keep his title, and the In Gear guys got the team prize which we were 2nd in. It was a fun morning and despite me not really performing to how I would like there was at least a few things I can remedy straight away, bars etc, so onto the next one, which is a similar sort of course, with more hills and less DC over in Bletchingley (but thankfully NOT 30 miles)

Strava Ride Here

S Berry 1:07:05
C Yates 1:07:24
P Tadros 1:07:31
D Sadler 1:09:xx
R Prebble 1:10:17
S Irwin 1:10:28
S Dennis 1:10:39
Tim Stevens 1:10:50