One of HHCC's more successful seasons in recent years continued on a blustery damp and decidedly cool August evening at the Bicester Millenium 4-up TTT at the Weston on the Green airfield.
We lined up as Julian Smith, Conor Dunne, John Dowling and Gavin Atkins (yours truly!). Julian may later have regretted his discision to start as man 1! We had a farily agressive first few hundred meters as my pusher tried to get me past JD with a huge shove that had me close to disaster, but the opening lap proved to be the most controlled of all the TTT's I've done which certainly paved the way for the rest of the ride.
Conditions were windy, with a headwind on the slightly uphill end to each lap (4 laps). Julian was infortunately tailed off in the 2nd lap and we waited for him first time but sadly it happened again and we had to press on. Julian is well capable of the pace but perhaps lacks road race experience and the comensurate variability needed for this type of event?
Down to 3 men things got tougher - the Average Power / Normalised Power ratios and absolute values increased in the 3 and 4th laps which indicate slightly longer and harder turns by myself - this is reflected in the laptimes (which are guesses!) falling. I made it approx 5:25/5:21/5:15/5:15, and this was reflected in the highest 5 mins power being the last 5mins which is the first time I've managed that in a 10 this year - so I feel we nailed the pacing :-)
EDIT: Offical laptimes were 5:35/5:18/5:14/5:10 - a beutiful negative split ride - its makes me feel all warm inside!
I really enjoyed the event and during the last few laps it was kind of cool riding in harmony with 2 guys, one less than half my age, and one a fair few years older ;-) I guess that's one of the best things about cycling as a sport! To make it more impressive Conor had ridden a super hard Junior National Champs RR on Sunday but he not only rode the hardest man 2 position, but also rode strongly and smoothly thoughout in a impressive TTT debut. Roll on the GHS 10 young lad!
All in all one of the most enjoyable races I've ever done :-) Go HHCC!
