Friday 1 July 2016

RAS de Cymru: Stage 4 - TT

This is the double day, this is the day you do a bloody TT in the afternoon. We hadn't ridden the course, instead deciding that sitting in Cafe Nero was a better option (probably was really). I was off at 4:10, with the rest of the team at 1 minute intervals. The course was 4.6 miles with 400ft of climbing, so i guess you could call it sporting. A 0.7 mile climb to start with at 5% followed by a rolling A road and small B road.


I like TTs and I like hill climbs, so in theory this should be a good course for me. In practice though I could tell I was quite fatigued, and I wasn't really sure how i'd feel.

Off I went, basically sprint up the hill and settle into a rhythm. Actually, I felt quite good, the climb went well, heart rate seemed quite low at around 175bpm though. Onto the A48 and I could feel a good rhythm setting in, aiming to get as aero as possible, and maintain my low cadence riding. The A road was quite "draggy" some some rises kept it interesting, and the speed changing a fair bit, but the key thing was my heart rate was stable. 

I passed the 3km to go sign, just before the turning onto the B road. I misjudged the corner and wasn't sure just where the turning was, so lost a bit of speed there, but got back on the hammer and smashed those pedals. There was another small rise at 1 mile to go, nothing long and less than a minute of effort, but I felt like I was going backwards here. Final push as I go past the 1km to go sign. Cross the line with a time of 11:26.7 (official).



I'd no real idea if that was good, I mean it felt good, and I couldn't have pushed much harder. But we shall see. Back at HQ and results confirmed as me in 8th. Very pleased with this indeed and moved me upto 19th on GC at 1:49. Kudos to the winning time of 11:12 by Paul Double. 



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