Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

Nah you do.
You’ve got to really smash the risers to keep average speed up, then coasts down to recover for a second or 2.

E2/10 doesn't feel flat. Especially after 90 miles

I've looked at that in the past but never actually used it (helps if you actually race).

Maybe I smooth it out... :)

I might just hide my power and race to average speed. Fuck it.

Is this for the r25/3 ?

If so it's one of the few where it makes sense to go really hard from the line, as there is a mile or two of slightly rolling single carriageway before the first roundabout and then the hill, which you can then recover from that effort.

Then it's just a case of not screwing up the far turn and digging in for the last section, which ends with a bit of a climb.

Yeah, well, any course really but that's my first one back in the game.

Last time I rode it my rim valve sticker thingie came loose and I thought I was about to be run over by a train so I spent the descent looking around for what was causing the noise. Then it was wet so I went fairly gingerly through the RABs and then still managed to almost take the wrong exit at the turn. By the time I got back to the up hill finish I was over the 50:02 I'd done the week before and didn't give a shit, then lifted again when riders started to pass me. It was still my 2nd fastest 25mi but it was a pile of shit.

Ok, smash it from the line, recover on the DH... how do I not screw up the turn? and then hammer home.

Just take it easy after you go over the bridge, watch out for the marshalls - they are normally really good at indicating where you need to go.

Bridge? I don't remember a bridge. I will have to have a closer look on Gmaps.

The far turn, left at the first roundabout, over the (train) bridge and then most of the way round the next roundabout.

That's the kind of direction that usually has me end up on a Motorway...

I think I may have almost taken the wrong exit on the second RAB too IIRC.

how do I not screw up the turn?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymX0QtHxn4w

Haha nice one. Of course someone's made a video of it...

"Feels like -1"

Hmm... time to blow the dust off the embrocation?

I've only driven along it, but it's easy to go off-piste: several exits.

Not all it's cracked-up to be, unless the weather is with you.

PS The New Inn looks decent. Not that I'd know, only having crossed the country and back in a fucking day without so much as a pint and a bag of pork scratchings to show for it.

Yeah, well it's 2hr drive to E2 vs 3-3.5 for R25 but there's double the amount of races that I can actually make on the Welsh course this year it seems.

Currently...

E2 - 50:02, 5th place
R25 - 51:17, 11th place

Race notes for E2/25 (clearly didn't give a fuck):
"(PB, new Willesden club record, 5th overall)"

My race notes from WKO for R25:
"Valve cover flapped open and messed with me until it ripped off on the descent.

Turns were all taken very easy due to wet from much rain and not knowing course too well. Almost took a service road on the outbound RAB.

Cross headwind and slight uphill on return plus going past PB time meant I'd lost much motivation until riders went past and I lifted."

I don't think the R25 is all that.

Very short uphill start and immediately hard left, assuming no traffic, and then most of what you gain on the next stretch is immediately scrubbed-off at the hairpin roundabout.

And what goes down...

What else do I have?

It's my second fastest 25 and there's fuck all chances for me to ride E2 again because I'm away or they're Vets races or ECCA-only.

The turn is further than halfway through. I quite like it as a course, despite not being a naturally gifted descender. Traffic is not normally too bad either.

they're Vets races or ECCA-only.

He he he, says the Fen-dwelling old giffer...

With the early morning only events now throughout the summer, I think the E2/25 'might' have had its day, i.e. the changes of it being a quick day will be fair less.

Or am I just saying this because I'm still bummed at being caught in no mans land. Too quick for a MM event, too slow for an open. Either way, I am not driving for 1hr45 for a 6:27am start. Last rode it last year on the event after Thanet RT rider Simon Henderson got hit by a car, to be brutally honest I was just pleased to finish in one piece.

There's Hu... oh.

Move to Suf... oh.

Wales then!

I was thinking of the RAB at Hirwaun, but having refreshed my memory it's a lot shorter to there than I thought.

And traffic at the start, rather than on the course: watching the Nats I saw a fair few either stall or take silly risks.

You're right though, I'm probably just grumpy about not getting a pint.

You're also missing the major point... there's a distillery just north of the start.