A return to time trialling! One of the local(ish) cycling clubs has started its time trial series and we are here for it! It’s been a while since I did a time trial and I was so very excited at the prospect of doing one.
We drove through some pretty heavy rain to get to the race location but I wasn’t worried as the radar had shown we’d have a storm free period to race during. Sure enough, the storms passed and we had dry skies even if the road was still a little wet in places.
I went out on my road bike because I haven’t been riding in aero much recently. I had seeded myself with a guesstimate of 30 minutes so I was the first rider off at the start. We were being set off at two minute intervals (covid protocols).
I wasn’t super happy with my start; it took a few seconds to get my second foot locked in. I also think I went out a little too hard -I had the bike computer set up to give me average speed and average watts every mile and that first mile had the highest power numbers. I tried to focus on just taking it a mile at a time.
We’d driven the course before parking up so I could tell when the turn-around was coming up. I turned without incident, and really without a second thought. (I’ve come a LONG way since that first TT.) Then it was about the acceleration back up to speed and taking a look to see how far back the other riders were. I was pretty sure I’d lost more than a minute to the rider immediately behind me and so spent the return leg checking over my shoulder for him. Happily, I made it to the finish line without being overtaken and clocked in a time of 28:50.
I think there’s space to move the time in zone numbers so I spend a bit more time in zone 4 & 5. Still I was pleased with my first effort in a while.
We celebrated with pizza.
