Port Talbot Wheelers 2-up 15 9th March 2025

In which I end up riding a solo 2-up

The Port Talbot Wheelers 2-up 25 mile time trial is often my season opening event. It involves a trip over to South Wales to visit a former club mate and regular Team Grumpy 2-up time trial partner. The usual pattern is to drive over on Friday, eat a massive Indian takeaway; test ride the bikes and have a moderate walk on Saturday; the event itself on Sunday; drive home on Monday.

The drive out was pretty straightforward except for some holdups due to network cable works on the A421 and ridiculously slow progress on the Welsh section of the M4, which turned out to be largely due to a convoy of five tanks on transporters trundling along at about 30mph in the middle of the afternoon. Oh well.

I'd re-jigged the left base bar gear switch on my bike - I'd replaced a broken SRAM blip with a cheap momentary switch (blips being ridiculously expensive). Unfortunately it was to sensitive and shifted all the way down the cassette when holding the bars. I reckoned that adding a ridge around the switch would sort this out. I used Sugru, a mouldable epoxy putty, to form a ridge. After it set I retaped the bar. In testing, the modification worked really well.

My team mate's P3C had been bought with Tri-Rig brakes fitted and these were so ineffective that they inhibited riding at speed. These brake calipers were unbranded, so possibly they were a knock-off of Tri-Rig - they were pretty badly corroded and probably hadn't been maintained by the previous owner. So we replaced them with more conventional brake calipers. A test bike ride confirmed both bikes were working nicely. Unfortunately it also revealed that my team mate was really suffering from a cold. Of which, more later.

We had known in advance that the race was to be shortened to 15 miles owing to roadworks on the dual carriageway. What was a bit unexpected was the installation of temporary traffic lights on the course. This turned out to be OK - the organiser stationed a couple of marshals to ensure things went smoothly there.

After a brief warm-up, we lined up at the start and all too soon we were off. I immediately noticed that my top tube pack, which contains my puncture stuff, had moved to the right and my knee was rubbing it. that was sufficiently uncomfortable that I quickly took a spell for the opportunity to straighten it. Over the course of the first 2-3 miles (which is the dual carriageway section), it became clear that my team mate was really quite unwell and a combination of breathing difficulty and 'jelly legs' caused him to pack and send me off to complete the race as a solo ride.

Pretty soon after that, I turned off onto the B4242 which is certainly not flat and has some pretty rough road surface in places. I got past the traffic lights. 

Riding solo in a 2-up TT!

Pretty soon after that, the team that started 2 minutes behind us came rocketing past. They were young and very fast! 

Getting caught and passed!

 I kept on plugging away, keeping the power up as best I could, though it tended to drop away on the descents. At times it was quite uncomfortable riding on the rough surface, but all in all I felt pretty good on the day. And as it turned out, my partner's decision to quite was very wise given the development of his cold over the next few days. I finished in 39:39 which would have been a middling place had it counted (which it didn't without a team mate!).

This was just another episode in Team Grumpy's history at this event.

As the finish line came into view, I could see the other half of Team Grumpy lurking around by the start. I crossed the line in 39:39, which was posted as 17th place - but should have been a DNF I guess since the time should be taken on the second rider. Still, I felt quite pleased overall.