>Yesterday evening I headed to East Hoathly to ride the Lewes Wanderers‘ club 10m TT on the G10/87. I’d ridden the course mid-April and had done 26:34 – still my season’s fastest.
The wind had abated a little from Monday’s window-smashing speeds, but it was still breezy. A ride round the course at about 6pm suggested a cross wind both ways but slightly easier going out. The course has a ‘V’ profile with a net descent of about 100 feet to the turn. I’d made a few tweaks to my position that seemed to work okay. The legs still felt dead from Sunday’s effort though.
I signed on as number 39 which meant a 7:53pm start – nearly sunset. As the sun dropped so did the temperature. Apparently it was only 6°C by the time we got going. I tried to start hard to take advantage of the downhill sections. For some reason I was changing down earlier than normal on harder sections. This risks scrubbing off speed, but it does maintain the revs better.
I got to the turn in fairly good order and then battled (as expected) all the way home. The worst part was riding into the setting sun. I couldn’t see a thing in front of me – I just hoped following vehicles would pick me out.
The last two miles were, as expected, very tough. I was pleased to keep the effort levels high, but annoyed to slip outside evens for the last mile again.
I was pleased that I rode hard and thought a good time was a possibility. In the end I did a 26:36 – 2 seconds of my course and season’s best. A little disappointing, but the ride was a decent one.
The event was won by Irish international (and beater of Chris Hoy in the sprint) Felix English with 21:03. His report is here.
Race stats: Time: 26:36 (22.56mph). First 5 miles: 12:22, last 5 miles: 14:14. Top speed: 30.3mph. Slowest mile (10): 3:05 (19.46mph), fastest mile (1): 2:19 (25.90mph). Average HR: 167bpm, maximum HR: 171bpm. Average cadence: 74rpm. 27th of 50 finishers. Winner: Felix English 21:03
Lance Woodman 