Five days on and I'm still unsure as to exactly how to put my experience at the National TT Champs into words. It was mega. Epic. Amazing. Daunting. Scary. Painful. Frustrating. Draining. Attempting to explain why it was all that is a little tricky; I've done National Championships before, I've done many Time Trials before, I've raced in front of crowds before, I've raced against top level athletes before, I've gone to the limit of my abilities before, I've been slightly overawed by people I've seen walking around the car park pre-race before...but never have I had everything at once. Never have I done something so important before. I've done the National Hill Climb champs twice now, but this was different-this was the British National Time Trial Championships. I wasn't just racing against flyweight specialists that only come out of the woodwork in October, I was up against Professionals, Olympians (kinda), British Cycling U23 Academy riders. This was way, way bigger than anything I'd done before. I won't bother giving you details of the race itself, just the result.
The race:
- 35.2km/21m in 51:32 at an average speed of 41kmph/25.5mph. First lap (of two) in 25:22.
- 18th out of 22. 6:45 down on winner Sam Harrison. 1st/2nd out of the 'privateers' if you will.
It may seem odd for me to look at my position relative to others I can establish are 'privateers', but it is important to know where I truly stand. I ride for a team, but it is a shop team supported by one man: Bill Nickson. He gives us as much help as he can getting us cheap bikes through having the Raleigh name on our kit and giving discounts on componentry etc; but he can only do so much. We don't do Premier Calendar events, we don't have a team car, we're just a bunch of mates racing. Safe to say though, that without Bill's help/guidance over the past few years I would not be writing this. Which brings me back to my point, I know what a difference a small amount of support makes so can only imagine what having the support of a fully fledged team/organisation would be like-and that has left me with two impressions:
- To *only* lose 6.75 minutes over a 45-50 minute TT to riders of the calibre of Harrison and McLay and Perrett, and to only lose 2 and a bit minutes to some other domestic professionals makes me really quite happy.
- Only losing 2 and a bit minutes to domestic full time professionals leaves me wondering just what I could have done had I had time to do as much training/had the support they have had.
It's good to have those two dominant thoughts remaining after the event as this is exactly what I need as motivation. I took on the best U23 riders in the country (ok, the best U23 riders who entered!) and I didn't come last (which was my initial fear!), I didn't get caught out on the course by anyone; I did the best ride I was capable of on the day and got a representative result. I didn't finish 10 minutes ahead of everyone else and get showered in Pro contract offers, I finished near the bottom of the results pretty much where I predicted I would. I haven't had the support the full timers have, I haven't been able to do the training they did-but I did the best I could and am content with that!
Some pics:
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| Warming up and trying not to be psyched out. |
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| Bike check/start. |
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| Bike check/start. |
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| Mr Porter had done his homework, had a few things to say about me! |
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| Decent crowds at the start. Big adrenaline rush helped me over the starting 'hill'! |
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| Sponsor spot ;) |
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| Coming up to finish lap 1. I somehow quite like me being out of focus here. Means you can't see the dribble. |
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| How I was able to sprint for the line I don't know. #fackered |
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| I was in a much worse state than I look here I can assure you! |
