Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

Riding a debut 12hr TT

2015 was my first real season of long distance time trialling, riding 3 100 milers with reasonable success – which made me seriously consider the 12 hour. The plan was to give the Newbury 12 a go in 2016 – this didn’t happen as likely supporters were unavailable. I considered riding the KCA 12 without much enthusiasm but this event ended up cancelled – so I finished 2016 with just the single 100 after the BDCA 100 was also cancelled.

Going into 2017 I knew that I needed to do a 12 and that the Newbury 12 was the only one that made sense. I live a mile from the course, parents aren’t too far away for support and I know (and love?) the course well. It’s also perfect for a debut 12 from a support perspective with laps no longer than 20 miles meaning there were plenty of opportunities for water/food handups – so an entry was submitted. I’d marshalled for the previous two years so I was looking forward to experiencing the event from the road.

Training wise, things could have been better. I’ve long since given up turbo trainer sessions or even anything that could be considered an interval outside of the hillclimb season, preferring the oldschool approach of ‘just riding your bike’ (though with far less volume than would be ideal). The postponement of the Hounslow 100 because of the National Champs meant that there was no opportunity for a long time trial before the 12, so as it ended up I went into it with just two 10s, a 15 and a 50 mile TT in my legs. The planned 6 hour test ride on the TT bike never happened and I managed perhaps around 100 miles on the TT bike outside of racing – all not really advisable! A couple of 200km rides on my road bike were the sum total of my distance prep. Nutrition was a similar situation; I knew what worked up to 100 miles in racing but beyond that was an unknown.

The week and day before the race was spent faffing around with setup choices like bottles (I ended up losing no bottles from the saddle carrier which is the one that concerned me, and four from my BTA mount), trying to work out what combination of gels and food would give me the suggested 60-70g of carbs per hour, and duct taping things like lights (forgot to turn on the rear) and Pitstop (no punctures) onto the bike. Gear choice was another issue of consideration, I’ve found 100” to be pretty perfect for 100s but didn’t really know what I’d be able to keep turning for 12 hours – I narrowed the choice down to 87”, 90” and 93”. I ended up with the latter (53/15) knowing that I could switch to a 16t if things got tough. I also debated skinsuit choice, whether to use tripsocks/overshoes and just about every other element of bike setup was considered. I didn’t really change my position much at all, I’d raised my bars 5mm a couple of races into the season and was running my saddle further back than last year. With the nullification of the 3cm rule I also pushed my extensions out by 5mm, as far as they would go as I’ve always felt more comfy stretched out. @xavierdisley was very tolerant of lots of questions so thanks for the patience.

Day of the race I was up at 5 for the drive over to HQ, ready for a start time of 7:46. After the usual HQ chitchat I got suited and booted, stuck gels up my skinsuit legs and headed down to the start – far too early as I ended up milling around by Chawton roundabout for 25 minutes or so. One of the Artic Tacx RT crew, supporting their three riders in (successful) pursuit of competition record remarked to one of their riders before he started that he found the 6-7 hour point the hardest – not what you need to hear on the start line! I rolled off and got started on the faster eastward leg towards Farnham, being surprised to be overtaken by my minute man just 3 miles in. Still, it’s a long race so I resisted any urge to pick up the pace and let him go. More expected was the scratch man, Pete Harrison thundering past me just after The Bull pub 9 miles in – my money was on him for the win, CR and competition record but he ended up bailing around 4 hours in his early 325 mile pace (!) proved too much.

Turning into the wind on the return leg from Farnham made it clear that this was going to be a tough day – the westbound leg has a net elevation gain, some terrible sections of road surface and also a reasonably significant headwind. There wasn’t much to do but just grind along, trying not to burn too many matches and settle in to something of a rhythm. I actually ended catching number 47, the person who had overtaken me from the start, just after the Holybourne roundabout which suggested that I was pushing harder into the wind and then struggling to get equivalent power out on the faster eastbound leg – he ended up catching me again here, I then overtook him a final time on the same stretch and then that was that for the race. I’ve always found it hard to get comfy on the bike in the first 45 minutes or so of a long TT, I think it’s a case of squeezing the blood out of the relevant places, and once I was over that I got into a relatively nice rhythm. I needed a pee from about an hour in but ignored it, targeting at least 4 hours before my first stop. After a first fumbled bottle handup 25 miles in things started going pretty smoothly with occasional catches/overtakes.

100 miles ticked over in 4:19, with my first stop shortly after for a pee behind a bus shelter and ditching gel wrappers in the bin before carrying on the Hen and Chicken to pick up more food. Up until then I’d been fine on a gel every half hour or so but I was getting pretty fed up of them so stuffed a sausage roll down my neck and grabbed a few gels, some Skratch fruit chews and a pack of Clif Shot Bloks. Getting a third of the way through without any issues felt good, but from about 5 hours I went through a bit of a rough patch. The wind had picked up and I didn’t feel too strong, and was worried that I’d overcooked things. Got through it and getting to 6 hours felt good. Breaking the halfway point is always a motivator for me on a long ride and knowing I was getting closer to the end carried me through for another few hours.

Anyone that’s ridden a long TT on the A31 will know how terrible the Chawton stretch is – it’s a little rolling and has huge cracks in the road that there is no smooth path through. It’s just ker-dunk, ker-dunk, repeated for 6 miles. The incentive in the Newbury 12 is the knowledge that once the leading riders get to 200 miles we’d be moved onto the finishing circuit of around 14 miles which misses out this section. This was predicted to be around 16:00, although I convinced myself that both Pete Harrison and Richard Bideau would be faster than that so we could move onto the smoother roads earlier – wrong, they’d both scratched! On my 9th approach to the circuit I was hoping to be turned onto the finishing circuit but wasn’t too surprised to be told to carry straight on. No problem – this was my last time. Wrong again, at 5 to 4 I was once again directed onto the Chawton stretch, this time for the final time. This caused another low period, especially knowing that I still had almost 4 hours left to ride.

Still, I eventually got onto the finishing circuit and started trying to work out what kind of end result was achievable. I wanted 270 miles but by this point that was looking like a big ask, as I was increasingly finding myself sitting up on the fast leg for comfort and still grinding into the wind on the way back. I set a schedule of 2 shot bloks ever twenty minutes and just tried to focus on tapping out the pace as consistently as possible. At one point I overtook Rob Bullyment, the other rider on fixed on the downward leg after a concerted effort. He returned the favour by catching my again a few miles later, I then passed him on the uphill stretch (notice a theme) – although he did end up beating me by 3 miles or so (on a smaller gear). As I got closer to the finish I knew that 270 was on, and it was amazing to tick over that at around 11:58. As my Garmin got to 12:00, I had 271.3 on my display. Similar to an hour record, you have to carry on past 12 hours until you reach the next timekeeper. Unfortunately I went past my penultimate one at what must have been 11:59:45, so I ended up riding on for another mile up the road into the headwind before finishing.

Got a lift back to HQ where I made slightly delirious conversation whilst inhaling samosas and Rachael Elliot’s homemade flapjack, then dropped all the kit back at home, showered and pretty much collapsed into bed. My feet probably felt the worst the next day, I couldn’t really feel my outer three toes on each side. Knees ached and my shoulders are still pretty grim, but legs have recovered surprisingly well.

Looking like 271.33 offical distance, pressure is on for a 25mph BAR now!

My best @hippy impersonation: