Stage 4 sees a return to the flat lands, and an early season Time Trial over 10 miles.
The only fly in the ointment is that this should be stage 6 as 2 opportunities have been scuppered by illness/work, otherwise our intrepid heroes/foolish old me and having a great time.
In the past, they've waited until March and the Team Time Trials to kick off the season, with the first Solo in April. So this event was going to come as a bit of a shock.
Training wise, preparation has been meticulously thorough, with JH managing about 7 hours in the saddle this year with about 3 rides. Jon.e has gone off radar, with some excuse about "not being able to upload anything". Or he just hasn't been out. Although suspicions are that a stationary bike in the gym may or may not have been used.
Although JH has a fifteen minute lead, expect this to be completely wiped out when it gets to the iron distance swim, with current predictions at 65 mins for Jon.e and a 90 min effort for JH. So JH is feeling pressured, as the events that suited him have largely passed, especially as events that feature swimming are starting to loom.
Over to the gents:
jon.e
Battle of the Dinosaurs Stage IV
Preamble.
At the moment we both seem to be utilising a training regime slightly less intense than Micks Badminton Protocol. So nothing different there, work getting in the way as all ways, and trying to juggle the different disciplines to make the best use of any time spent getting fitter/faster/less fat ( delete as appropriate ).
Driving to the race, I passed my work place and glanced at the windsock, most wind socks are semi calibrated to a certain wind speed, ours is 20-25 kts, so when it is horizontal the wind speed is no less than 20kts, simples, it was certainly horizontal this morning, true to the forecast of averaging 25mph, gusts 35 mph if we are unlucky.
The course.
The battle zone today was the V910 Time Trial course, which parallels the new A1, near Ferrybridge. Run by YCF, and part of their annual race series. A good field, 90 listed, but at least one was riding twice, once with a fixed gear and later with standard, this isn't unusual, as often with TT races you get the Trikes entered, and riders will race with both a trike and a standard TT, personally, one race is enough.
The course is a standard there and back, dog-leg L shape, ten miles in total. Starting in a minor road, onto the A road six roundabouts. The outward leg is uphill, and the return downhill, well not quite, undulating up, and undulating down, total elevation gain of 320ft.
Not much, but enough.
Signed on and collected my number, met up with Jack, and got the kit assembled. I would be off twenty minutes before Jack, and hopefully he wouldn't catch me. We rode to find the start, unusually it was only a mile away, not the standard, 5-10 miles, hidden in a disused quarry. We wished each other the best and I trundled off to the start.
The race.
Half awake and nearly dead.
All I hear, is a scream in my head.
My minute man was a DNS, so I would have nobody to chase, just me, Billy no mates, who would be dusted by the faster riders off after me.
Count down from one minute, at 30 seconds, clipped in, held by the starter, 10, 5,4,3,2,1 go!
Give the time trial organisers their due, they understand that your HR may have dropped whilst waiting to start, so the races are generally arranged to have the start, just before a road junction, roundabout, or in a layby where they throw you out into on coming traffic, move it or lose it, certainly gets the HR up into the z5 area quickly, don't want to be a bonnet mascot on a HGV now.
Decisions, decisions, decisions, the outward stretch was uphill with a tail cross wind, to the dog-leg when it would be a full on cross wind gusting 35mph, and the return after the dog-leg downhill with head cross wind. Do I,
a) go fast initially to make he most of any tail wind, knowing I am crap at uphill.
b) save some for the return and try to utilise any downhill, but struggle with the wind.
c) stick the RPE at Dinosaur ( gas mark 11 ), and stay there.
Option c was the answer. If you look at the Strava link, you can see the consistency of the effort from the HR.
http://www.strava.com/activities/115483870
Released from the shackles of the starter, I accelerated towards the road junction and first roundabout, a glance to the right showed a gap in traffic, and I could try a settle into a rhythm. Not a chance, all throughout the race it was a constant changing of gears to maintain the RPE, the undulating road, the road surface and the wind. Up right wasn't an option, observing fom a 45 degree angle seemed to be the norm. Road traffic was steady but not heavy, good road signage to advise of the race and drivers taking notice.
Speed was fluctuating, but HR consistent with RPE, although I had my 310xt on, all I took notice of was the mile signal, if I glanced at the fast-o-meter in the bike cockpit, it was just to check the mileage and get depressed as to how far I had to go, if I checked the speed, it would depress me, One glance told me I was doing the incredible speed of 12mph, 12, twelve miles per hour in a TT. That is depressing.
The miles didn't tick by quickly, I reached the dog-leg turn and the road goes between an avenue of trees, calming the wind, looking ahead, the trees finished, open fields, low hedges, and a horrendous cross wind coming up, how hard it would hit, goodness knows. A cursory glance behind, no traffic, I moved slightly towards the centre of the road, and aimed the bike in a diagonal towards the ditch on the left to try and reduce the impact of the wind, the end of the trees fast approached and, oomph, the wind hits, the bike leans, I lean but hopefully the slight angle of entry prevented me from visiting the opposite side of the road. This was difficult, about half a mile to the turnaround, and half a mile back before the trees provide respite again.
Gingerly around the roundabout, struggle with the cross wind again, and hopefully we are over half way?
Legs are like jelly, the man with the hammer is calling, and it isn't Gary. Headwind, gusts, roundabouts, all a sweaty blur, through the damp haze, I saw Jack going up the road, moving swiftly and deftly along, I guessed from his speed he might be quicker, and victory would be his again, the rout would continue, over a brow in the road, and the checker board could be made out 200 yards ahead, last effort, go on, every second counts, shout my number and pull the gears back. Sweat dripping in my eyes.
Slowly made my way back to race HQ to await the return of Jack.
Quick change, Jack returns and off to see the results board for clarification.
It was close again, very close, strangely enough we both thought each other had home turf advantage?..
16 seconds, was all the difference, Jack in at 28:05, and myself at 27:49. A tough day at the office, but a bad day racing beats a good day at work.
The Race to Extinction continues.
After the race, we opted not to stop for tea and #mmmcake but went to see Andrew and Beatrice and Henry who had invited us around for coffee. Great to see them again and catch up
.JH
I would have felt terribly underprepared for this event. If I had bothered to think about it. But with the focus just on our personal battle, I wasn't too worried about the lack of race prep. So, all was set for the first go on the TT bike since the hill climb back in October.
I now realise that I was fully expecting defeat, as I remembered to bring the little dinosaur along with me - the one that is presented to the stage winner at the end of each stage. The last few times I had forgotten.
I had ridden this course before. A 29:12 on the road bike. In April. After a fair bit of training.
The wind was forecast as at about 26mph with 40mph gusts. Picking up a the race went on.
I wasn't anticipating going any faster than that with the TT - as the conditions were tough. And I am not very fit.
I think I said to Jon.e that if I get a 27 I would be more than pleased.
I had an extreme lack of telemetry having no cadence metering, and I left the HR band behind. Can't really see the garmin during the race, so wasn't that concerned.
I chose to display elapsed time and time of day. The latter being useful to get to the start in time.
Warm mainly consisted of working out how long it took to get to the start from the car park and working out what gear to start with. Wish Jon.e good luck as he was off 20 mins before me. Back to the car. Strip off. Then back to the start.
The great thing about the garmin tracks is that we can compare performances.
Start the watch when the time keep says 10 seconds. And off.
A few roundabouts on this route. I took the first a bit quick. Then from then on the others a bit slow. Mainly using them as an excuse or a bit of a breather.
The course uses the old A1. So there is some dual carriage way. This is great as there is hardly any traffic - it's all on the new A1(M) which runs parallel. The worst bit of course is the last bit of the A63 up near the turn, where there is a stretch of double white lines - aka squash the cyclist lines. Still, a pretty low traffic count.
The outward leg had a bit of wind assistance up to the dog leg. Then a fierce head wind to the turn. Then the reverse.
The garmins show that on the overall uphill outward section I gradually pulled away from Jon.e. building up a lead of some 5 - 10 seconds by the turn. From there, the relative speeds were reversed, with Jon.e Starting to claw back the lead. This is reflected in his max speed which which as a couple of K's higher.
By 8.8 miles we were absolutely neck and neck. The last 1.2 miles was where jon.e pulled out a massive 16 seconds.
I was home in 28:05. A time I wa content with.
The TT bike is gifting me about 2 mins in a 10 mile TT over the road bike. Food for thought.
Did I feel I had left it all out on the course? Initially no. But as I was utterly knackered a bit later, maybe I did. The wind and gradients meant it was impossible to get a rhythm. And you spent the time fiddle with the gears. Mentally I was probably expecting defeat - which Is a mistake I will try not to make again.
The conditions were pretty interesting - during the gusts it was about staying on the machine - not thinking about pedalling.
But in overall terms, this was only ever a preparation - valuable experience on the TT bike (I've still only done around 100miles on it). And you can't replicate racing in a training ride, no matter hard you try.
We may not get to have Stage 5 until April, and the first tri of the season. Now I'll have to work out how to get swimming and cycling into the mix. And running.
So, JH's lead had been clawed back to 14:59.9 now.
The tri is going to be interesting.
).
