The highs and lows of 'K33/10'...

After stopping the clock at exactly the same time as Jessica Rhodes-Jones at the Janet Kelly Memorial last year and sharing the trophy, I was keen to go one better this year. I had given myself some time just to keep the legs ticking over rather than starting a block of training and the legs felt good for having done this. I often feel that I'm going into races with fatigued and/or sore legs, or perhaps this is just my brain telling me that is the case! However, on this occasion I woke up feeling good - this rarely happens so it was a very welcome feeling. (Quick, note down the formula so that it can be repeated!!)

Having signed on, collected my number, driven the course to check for any rogue road furniture or pot holes that might have appeared since I last rode the course, it was off to the normal warm-up spot to set up. So far so good... With the turbo set up, Garmin ready to go, my number on and the weather feeling warm everything was looking good for what I hoped would be a decent ride. I jumped on the bike, went to change down a gear and... nothing. I must have missed the button, I'll try again... unquestionably NOTHING. So, due to various issues with trying to achieve a UCI legal set up, when I bought Percy last year the decision was made to have Di2 (electrically operated gears). As distinct from a motor on the bike!! The Di2 runs off a frame mounted battery and generally requires charging no more than 3 times a year, or that was the case last year! Indeed when I checked the battery level indicator the day before it had over 90% charge - which I had deemed more than adequate to warm up and ride a 10 mile time trial on.

The fault finding started with cables - there must be a loose cable... No, this appeared not to be the case (as far as we could see). A quick phone call to Swinnerton Cycles in desperation to see if they could shed any light on the issue; not all that easy when they are 80 miles away! Barney talked Paul through how to try and manually get the chain onto the big ring so that at least I had one reasonable gear. This was easier said than done given the Di2 automatically trims and adjusts the mech as it changes gear. It wouldn't hold on its own so Paul, thinking on his feet, decided to try jamming a spare 2032 (watch) battery to hold the chain on the big ring - I don't recommend trying this at home (let alone for racing)!! Within the space of 5 minutes we had gone from 'OK, we're going home, it's just not our day' to 'come on, we can do this, we've got one gear!' I must admit I was finding it hard to keep my head by this point but with one gear I started my warm-up routine and Paul sped off to HQ to see if anyone might have a spare battery they were prepared to lend me. Unsurprisingly the answer was no but more disappointingly was the general feeling that it was my fault for not preparing properly. Those who know me well will know that in paying attention to the minutei I generally leave no stone upturned. To me, at least, there is a big difference between poor preparation and unforeseen equipment failure.

Trying to concentrate on the job in hand at the start

Having kept a lid on my now shortened, warm-up - knowing that with only one gear it wasn't going to be as well controlled as it would normally be, I was cutting it fine to get down to the start. A late start penalty really would have added fuel to the already well lit fire. Goal number one became get out the saddle and get off the start line safely! The usual performance anxiety nerves vanished as this wasn't a level playing field any more, it had suddenly become a 'try your best with what you've got' scenario and I had no idea how it would pan out as riding a fixed gear TT has never been on my agenda, let alone a gear that I wouldn't have chosen!

I made it safely off the start, goal number one accomplished. I was frantically spinning my legs very quickly as there is a small descent within 200m of the start line. Thankfully the first third of the course is quite rolling, so it flattened out and enabled me to feel like I was actually engaging some power and then climbed. For the first time ever on this course I was out of the saddle, on the base bars, watching my cadence drop and drop some more. Gears make life so much easier!! I started to pick up a cross tailwind on the middle third of the course, so was once again finding that I was trying to ride a far higher cadence than I'm used to. This was only to get worse in the final third when the headwind that had made life somewhat 'easier' for the first section was now a tailwind. I clearly don't do a very good impression of a beautiful smooth Singer sewing machine! With a cadence tipping upwards of 120 rpm I was well and truly out of my comfort zone and this wasn't helped by seeing the power numbers plummeting accordingly. Still, I hadn't gone home, I hadn't bailed... (yet!) and the finish line was creeping ever closer so it would soon be over.

A very pleasant surprise to have secured 3rd place

I snuck back into HQ to give my number in and creep out with my tail between my legs but was pleasantly surprised to see that I had actually made the podium. Somehow I had rescued something from this outing and finished 2 seconds off 2nd place, to take 3rd.

Mascot Penguin with the Charlie Grieg Memorial Trophy

Thankfully, for the next race on K33 - The Charlie Grieg Memorial - I had pre-emptied any battery woes by charging it the night before and leaving the battery off the bike and Swinnerton Cycles kindly lent me a spare battery just to be absolutely sure! The weather wasn't quite as good as it had been for the above race; still a headwind out and tailwind back but a stronger headwind with quite strong cross-wind gusts. There were a few moments where my front wheel was caught and my ability to ride a straight line vanished! I didn't feel that I executed this ride particularly well, my pacing was off in the first third which threw me a bit and I had to stop myself cursing at the traffic at both roundabouts which led to braking and losing all the speed I'd built up. Just the nature of racing on the open road, sometimes you get a good clear run and other times it's decision time - is there room to squeeze up the inside, what is that car doing...?!

Sue Semple 2nd, Fay Barrington 3rd

Despite all of the above, I was pleased to take the win from a strong ride by Sue Semple (Born2Bike) in 2nd. It helped to make amends somewhat for the previous outing on this course. Racing is full of ups and downs, time trialling less than road racing due to the more controlled nature of the event, however there are still those unpredictable things that catch you out. There are a few more items on the pre-race checklist now!