On Sunday 16 August Alex, Simon and
I took part in the ECCA 12 hour time trial on the E2/12 course near
Cambridge. Jake has added photos to the blog and Alex told his story, so
here’s the tale of my day.
I got into time trialling in 2014 as
a way of improving my triathlon performances and training for my first iron
man, which came and went along with any motivation to swim or run.
Fortunately my appetite for cycling remained and 2015 , despite starting
slowly, progressed into a successful year with PBs at all distances and
particularly pleasing 4:15 hundred in terrible conditions on a tough course.
All that, along with some encouraging/bullying/egging on/motivating from mainly
Brian and Debs convinced me to enter the 12 hour with only four weeks until the
event.
The idea, I told myself, was to ride
the 12 as a first attempt giving me the experience to have a ‘proper’ go at one
the following year. I’m not sure that I, or anybody else, ever believed
that was how I would ride it.
I had been planning to ride the SERC
10 on the Saturday morning before the 12 hour, and to ride the Phoenix
10 in the afternoon. I changed my mind about the SERC 10 shortly after
waking up, but still made it out for a pretty average 10 in the
afternoon. I’m glad I did, as Dale, Russ and I broke the Phoenix team ten
record that had stood since 1988 (Dale can take most of the credit for that,
and may well go on to break many Phoenix records if he keeps improving at the
same rate).
After a brief visit home to see Debs
and the dogs I left for Cambridge, picking up James Roberts on the way.
James would be my key support on the day, always on hand with drink, food,
spare wheels and shouts of encouragement. In practice, I suspect James
just did whatever Brian told him to!
Saturday night pre-race fuelling
took place at Little Chef before an earlier night. I fancied a rom-com,
but James was keen to get some shut eye. Something about having a big day
on Sunday. Being so close to the HQ meant we
got to lie in until 5:15, before pre-race porridge and a liberal application of
chamois cream. Then it was off to register ahead of my 6:22 start
time. Alex and Simon started 20 minutes and 10 minutes before me which,
on current form, gave me nice targets to chase, though it appeared I might
catch my minute man much sooner. He didn’t fancy doing two laps of the
first circuit so planned to go slow enough not to make the cut-off for a second
lap and, sure enough, I caught him less than four minutes into a 12 hour race.
The day was made up of four
‘circuits’. The first was a 40 mile out and back on the A11/A14.
The cut-off for the start of the second circuit was 8:30 (miss the cut-off and
you get diverted immediately onto the next circuit). I was keen to make a
second lap as on paper the first circuit looked like the fastest of the day.
It was, despite one small incident. At around 50 miles I punctured.
I recalled that tubulars can ride flat without too much trouble so, knowing I
pass my support team soon, I rode on rather than waste time fixing the
tyre. The ride might have been a bit shaky, but was only around 10% down
on speed, which was good, because it was a little further than expected
before I found James and a spare wheel. Having ridden five miles on a flat, the
comfort of a fully inflated front tyre was bliss.
The B circuit (aka the morning
circuit) was immediately less fun than the first. It was undulating and I
found it hard to find any rhythm. I very quickly started to look forward
to getting off it. My first proper stop came at around 100 miles, which
had taken about 4:20, a little ahead of target pace. Half a sandwich and
a quick stretch later and I was back on the bike. ‘Interestingly’ that
half sandwich was pretty much all the savoury food I ate during the ride.
I had prepared six of them in anticipation of getting sick of gels, but that
time never came, and 27 gels in one day might be a record I struggle to break.
The morning circuit gave me my first
glimpse of the fast guys. Number 90 came passed me like I was stood
still, but then he had legs like my waist and a chain ring like my wheels, and
no doubt phenomenal capacity to suffer. Anyway, I was glad to be diverted
off the morning circuit after four laps. The last hour and a half had
been dark, mentally that is. The weather was fantastic all day, with only
a little pick up in the wind during the afternoon and an hour of hot sunshine.
The C circuit (aka the afternoon
circuit) was much more up my street. Fast flat roads under trees, nice
villages, plenty of support, and a very fast stretch along a busy road, only
hampered by traffic lights. I had a real purple patch. I stopped
three times to stretch and refuel, more in preparation for the last circuit than
because I felt I had too. My stops meant I passed the same people on
several occasions only for them to repass me as I guzzled coke and melon. The afternoon circuit had a busy
stretch of supporters, including Simon and Lisa. Simon had bailed with nausea
after 100 miles or so and spent the rest of the day sat in the sun cheering on
Alex and me. I got increasingly jealous of how comfortable his deckchair
looked!
Then it came, the D circuit (aka the
finishing circuit). Making it this far made us finishers. The
finishing circuit was about 12 miles long with timekeepers placed every 1.5
miles with the idea that you keep going until you hit 12 hours and then ride to
the next timekeeper. The last two timekeepers you pass then do some
linear interpolation to get your final distance.
Once on the finishing circuit you
don’t even need to keep going to the 12 hour mark. Theoretically I could
stop any time and get a distance, but there was almost three hours left and
targets to hit. At the time 200 miles came up I was confident that I
could make my 240 mile goal, and probably had enough in the tank for 250
miles. Beyond 250 miles the next targets were 252.3 (Stu’s distance) and
256.9 (Frank’s club record). For a brief moment, with around two hours to
go, I thought the latter might be on so pushed hard for a lap. I think my
legs had it in them, but my back and neck did not, or perhaps I just didn’t
man-up enough. I couldn’t lift my neck up to look forwards, so there was
times I was riding along a three lane busy road, at 25mph, staring down at the
white line to judge my position in the lane. Not fun.
By the final hour I was unable to
get down onto the aero bars so was struggling to average 20mph. Frank’s
record was safe but 250 miles was still on and there was an outside chance of
getting bragging rights over Stu. Cheers from James, Jake and Brian kept
me going, as did fantastic support from strangers around the lap.
Having completed almost five laps of
the circuit I was familiar with the stretches between each timekeeper so was
absolutely gutted to pass TK7 with 11:59 on the clock knowing that the next
stretch had a horrible lump in the middle that I would need to keeping pushing
over before reaching TK0 and finally stopping. Getting off the bike and
lying in the grass was bliss until my legs, which had felt good all day,
started to throb. A quick call from Debs took my mind off that before we,
slowly, made our way back to the HQ to exchange numbers for a cup of coffee, a
feature of time trials of all distances.
And that’s it. I reckon I
might even do another one day, but I’ll try resist any attempt by Brian to
bully me into a 24. I would encourage any cycling friends to give one a
go! All that’s left is to say a massive
thanks to those who supported from near and far, especially James, Brian and
Jake, who literally kept us going for the day.
Provisional results:
1st Adam
Topham 314.3 miles (26mph – ridiculous!)
10th Dave
Watt 252.7 miles
20th Alex
Kew 234.4 miles
