Rather a nice afternoon for a time trial - dry with a gentle breeze - but rather cool. I rode out on the time trial bike, newly equipped with a Hed Jet disc wheel with a Powertap hub. After a week fighting off a cold, I wasn't really feeling particularly optimistic, particularly given the last few months' lack of training, but I did hope to knock out a mid 23.
After bizarrely wishing the timekeeper '
good morning' (it was 3.32pm!), I left the start line quite briskly. Unfortunately the traffic at the Billington roundabout was busy enough to slow me appreciably - I then had to accelerate back up to a reasonable speed again. Other than this, the outward leg was fairly brisk and I felt pretty good. Unfortunately, I got stopped again by traffic at the turn. Worse than this, at a couple of points in the return leg I completely lost the plot (mentally) and found myself allowing my speed to drop far too much.
After a clear run through the second crossing of the Billington roundabout, I crossed the line with a pretty poor 23:59. Still, it's my fastest '10' of 2013 - maybe things are looking up...
Here's the Garmin trace, below the fold:
