After a bit of a hiatus in having anything much to write (that might be of vague interest to anyone), out of nowhere came the idea of dipping my toe in the water at a road bike TT. Due to the infamous C word, training had mostly been of a low intensity, for two purposes really; one to keep my base fitness going and the second because if I wasn't racing did I need to take the risk of high intensity training potentially leaving me more vulnerable to catching COVID. However, despite the huge gap in training (April 2018 - September 2019), I had capitalised on quiet roads throughout the UK lockdowns and slowly built up both my confidence and my mileage. Emphasis on slowly! My fitness was gaining and the idea of entering a Midlands Road bike TT seemed vaguely appealing - perhaps more as a test of my nerves and ability to see whether I would crumble out on the open road in a competitive environment, rather than how I might stack up against other riders.
This plan had a few flaws, namely I didn't have any race wheels and my only bike is my 2013 Trek 1.1 'winter hack' that has now become a bike for all occasions. A friend kindly agreed to loan me a set of wheels - a nice pair of American Classics, so that would help to transform 'Vikki' into more of a speed machine. A test ride of the wheels the evening before suggested that they rolled really well and, importantly for my nerves, had a good sharp braking track. Thankfully they were metal rimmed thus providing a far superior stopping performance than my previous carbon wheels that required a telegram a few days prior to any significant reduction in speed. Clearly stopping should have been the last thing on my mind but this 'have a go at a TT' was all about building confidence and no heroics.
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| Trying to hold my nerve on the roundabout |
Trust me to pick an event that had attracted a few good road riders - Hayley Simmonds amongst them! There's nothing like feeling like you have actually thrown yourself in at the deep end, especially when you see the plethora of rather fancy carbon bikes at registration. It suddenly dawned on me that a road bike TT wasn't going to be quite the level playing field that I had imagined. However, I wasn't there to be competitive, well not with the rest of the field anyway, just with my own head.
I set off from the start - thankfully there was no pushing off due to COVID protocols, so this was one thing less to worry about, and focussed on the job in hand. I was catching my minute woman by the first roundabout, which was a little unexpected, so I gave her plenty of space so I could take the line I wanted to and instead chose to come past her once we were on the dual carriageway. Thankfully the cars were quite respectful so it wasn't too nerve wracking. However, in order to make the turn at the roundabout I needed to cross into the outside lane - cue lots of traffic that seemingly hadn't spotted my right arm out signalling that I'd like to come across! Eventually I made it and safely navigated the roundabout, albeit via the scenic route (but I did overtake someone on the exit)!
The return on the dual carriageway was a little more unsettled, with a couple of cars choosing to close pass which unnerved me. I briefly considered aborting mission but then realised that sitting on the verge beside the dual carriageway wasn't actually going to fix anything and besides I'm not into the habit of quitting. Then I realised that I was actually catching the rider in front of me, so this became my focus instead, a much more positive use of energy! I eventually passed her about 500m from the finish line - three people overtaken and nobody had overtaken me - that had to be a positive!
Unsurprisingly, it was quite an emotional day - mission accomplished, I'd turned up, tried my best and ticked off that box that had been left open for too long; I'd actually done a race! By more luck than judgement I had finished 1st Vet so that was a huge confidence boost. Did I want to have another go...? At this point the honest answer was I wasn't sure.
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