VTTA ’10’ F11/10 14th July 2024

This was one of my all too rare open events. The F11/10 uses the A41 as it bypasses Tring, and it’s the fastest local 10 mile course owing to the gift hill in the middle of the course.

The VTTA event was listed as preference to VTTA members, so the field was predominantly older cyclists with only a few Senior category riders (though many of the reserve riders were of that category).

As I got ready before riding over to Aston Clinton, it was clearly going to be nice conditions for a TT as it was completely still and clear skies. It’s a 24 mile ride over to the HQ being used, and this was just lovely - I really enjoyed this ride. I always allow for the possibility of a puncture or similar, so I arrived in plenty of time to sign in and collect my number before riding up to the start. By this time there was an extremely gentle breeze.

The opening section to the slip road to the turn is really hard. Not because of gradient or the conditions, but because of the horrible road surface which was rough as the surface dressing had left it very stony. I found myself havign to work really hard to just get my speed up to a decent level. Then down to the complicated double roundabout turn where may riders go astray. It was well marshalled, and I was quickly off up the sliproad back onto the dual carriageway and more rough road surface! Before long, things got a lot smoother and then I was hurtling down the ‘gift hill’ (you finish without having to go back up it) and on to the second turn, a straightforward roundabout.

Just after the roundabout I was caught for a minute by one of the reserve riders. I just upped the effort as best I could for the remaining couple of miles to the finish. The finish is right at the slip road off the dual carriageway and organisers are always strict about riders who don’t come straight off onto the sliproad on safety grounds.

Back at the HQ they had me listed as a 21:56, my best ’10’ result for about three years. I don’t yet know how I placed on actual time or on ‘Age Adjusted Time’.

I rode my Cervelo P5, and the bizarre gear issues I had a few days back when I was unable to ride the club event at Astwood were absent. In fact the transmission worked perfectly.

All in all, a grand morning out on the TT bike.