English
The Moment of Truth
They say that time trialling is the ‘race of truth’. Against the clock you can’t hide in the bunch, can’t shelter from the wind or exercise any tricky sportsman’s games in the pursuit of your goal. In time trialling you can’t cheat the wind, can’t run for cover behind the group, or sandbag and fool nature into accepting your ruse.
It looks like finally, after months of delays we have come to the point where it is just us and nature. All our injury and health worries seem to be behind us. We have, against some expectation remained in good shape despite the interference of work, travel and families. There is always more that could be done, or situations managed differently but nevertheless we now stand less than a week away from knowing whether we will enter the record books by the time we roll into Great Yarmouth on our attempt at the Side to Side record from Pembroke.
The schedule that has been filed with the Road Records Association calls us to maintain an average speed of 21.6 miles per hour, over 380 miles with the worst of the terrain presenting itself during the first half of the course but crucially the better wind conditions over the faster second half of the course.
As always work has proved the biggest stumbling block to full on long hour training, most especially the Tour de France, with it’s constant travelling, long hours and often inconvenient routes and so for the final run up to the record attempt I have reverted to the fixed wheel bicycle to do tune up the legs and adjust to the speed that will be required to work in harmony with Jez. Throughout the Tour of Poland, which Eurosport covered from it’s London base, I trained with team colleague Peta McSharry in Richmond Park and commuted to work and back. Little did I know it would lead to doing my first fixed wheel TT in 10 years when Peta entered me for the London Dynamo Richmond Park 10.5 last Sunday.
I’d forgotten just how impossible it is to chase anyone on a road bike in a time trial when you can’t freewheel and than goodness for the generosity of Dave Atkinson at Road CC who rode to the rescue with a 5 tooth sprocket for the White Industries rear hub on my bike that has an unique carrier system. These sprockets are like hen’s teeth at the moment but at least it meant I could still see riders in the distance by the end of the 2 long fast downhill sections of the course.
In the end I caught 4 men in the road class for 2′ in total and ended up top fixed in the road category, which I have to say rather surprised and pleased me. The time might not look spectacular at 28’50″ but I simply couldn’t have pedalled downhill any faster….mind you I couldn’t have pedalled uphill much faster either!
Come Thursday night the entire team will have gathered at the most westerly point in Wales, Pembroke Castle will be the starting point for what has turned into more than a record, into a voyage of discovery and with 17 hours we will know whether we can open the record books to see Harmon & Hastings next to some of the greatest distance riders of all time.
Ride Safe
DH