31st March 2010

Worked from home today...It was a very miserable and cold day :-(

I headed of to Queen's Field in Sutton Benger at 5:49 for the 6:16 sign on...I thought I would get there early and start quickly, as it turned out I got there quite late...It was a very strong head wind :-(

I paid my £1:50 and signed in .....13 th......I am not superstitious but was 13 :-( I pinned my number on my jacket and slowly pedalled to the start.

I patiently waited for the first 12 people to set off then I lined up at the start line...I set of with a fantastic tail wind :-) And a fantastic speed :-)

1800		3.5	°C	W	19	mph	33	mph	35	km	998 hPa, Rising
1900		3.3	°C	W	17	mph	29	mph	45	km	999 hPa, Rising

Unfortunately the fantastic tailwind turned into a killer side wind then a killer headwind :-(

At least nobody caught up with me :-)

It was quite funny to see everybody else wearing the bare minimum (It was bloody freezing) and all ancillary kit removed from their bikes, I was there with flappy cycling trousers and a flappy jacket, crud catcher mudguards still fitted and a full drink bottle :-)

I guess I have a quick and easy way of improving my speed, just lose the flappy clothes and carry less :-)

Even in the poor conditions and the flappy clothes etc I still turned in a reasonable time for the course...Officially my time was 27 min 59 sec for the 10 miles, the Garmin had the ride as 28 min 49 covering 10 miles with an average speed of 20.8 and a maximum speed of 27.1 mph.

I think under calmer and warmer conditions I will easily be back up to the 22-23 mph average for the course...so I am quite happy :-)

And here is the course...

For statistical completeness, including the ride to and from the TT I cycled 23.3 miles today...