Redhill Sporting 18

15/02/2015

Today marked my return to competitive racing – the Redhill Sporting 18 time trial. I find these a good early season marker, and 2 years ago I finished in second place to the very aerodynamic Keith Lea. One of my goals for this year was to podium this event in the road category, as that would show me that I’m on target.

The course was altered slightly, and extended to 18.6 miles, with a little longer on the dual carriageway.

The first 20 minutes, I felt terrible, and I think this was down to an improper warm-up. I was about 20w lower average power than what I was targeting! Quarter of the way in on the Holmbury road descent, I saw a horse ahead. I alerted the horse rider that I was approaching and she turned her horse in the road so I couldn’t get by. I was going 30mph at the time of shouting, and ended up doing 17 seconds at 46w with avg speed of 14mph (I knew I slowed, but data says I actually came to a stop to tell her there was a TT on after she had become irate at the number of cyclists in the event!). It didn’t bother me at the time as my watts weren’t that great, so I didn’t think I’d podium.

It turned out to be quite crucial in fact as I picked up the second half at targeted watts, and the last 5 minutes were strong. I’m irritated now as although I finished with 47:07, I would have finished with a long 46. It didn’t make a difference though as I finished 3rd by nearly 40 seconds. The only difference is I would have been 3rd place (rather than joint 3rd with Redhills Chris Herbert).

Delighted to podium on my return to competitive events, and being closer to Pat and Dom than I thought I would be! Watts were poorer than I hoped. 285w/292w NP.

Results:
Rob Sharland 2nd in TT
Keith Lea 2nd vet
Dom Clegg 1st road bike
Pat Wright 2nd road bike
Gareth Thomas 3rd road bike

1st team prize too for Paceline-RT