Astwood '10' 26/8/23

In which I suffer a series of bike crises before even leaving the house, and have a lacklustre performance.

So as usual I started getting set up about an hour before I needed to set out for Astwood. When I came to pump the tyre up on the P5 TT bike, I found that the front wouldn't get up to my desired pressure, then the rear disk wouldn't stay inflated (I think because the valve core came a little loose). So I switched to the P3.

This meant I had to pump both H3 trispokes up with a track pump with an awkward valve chuck. the I had to remove my overshoes, change shoes to match the P3's pedals and get everything linked to my Garmin before setting off.

I dashed up to Astwood and arrived dripping with sweat. A good warmup perhaps?

For the event, I found it hard to maintain concentration and frequently found my power sagging away to tempo levels - not exactly what one looks for in a 10 mile time trial. It was a bit hot and close, but actually quite a nice evening for a TT, with some setting course PBs. The winner did a spectacular 20m28s - though it has to be said he was very much younger than the rest of us. Oh, and pretty damned talented to boot.

I finished in 4th place with 24h12s, a fair bit slower than I'd hoped for on recent form. I was third on veteran standard (but pretty close behind the first two riders).

Maybe it's time for a change of pace, and hopefully 10 days cycling in Normandy will offer just that.

Full results at the NBRC website.