Ben Crick writes…
To get a break from the freezing cold mornings I tried a Saturday afternoon open 10 M TT on the Isle of Grain in Kent. I also planned to use the trip to north Kent to catch up with an old friend who ran a small airfield in Stoke next to the Race HQ.
I arrived very early and the strong winds and drizzle meant there would be no flying from the airfield and little hope of flying on the bike. I had time to ride the whole course before the start which on one hand was good but as I approached the start line with 20 minutes to spare the heaven’s opened and along with a few other wimps I took shelter under a tree. Suffice to say, by the time I started at 15:23, I was soaked and cold. So bad was the weather a few people who signed at the HQ decided to retire before turning a pedal! Now I have explained the pre-races excuses, I set off into a headwind (another excuse) and worked hard to the turnaround at 5.5 miles dodging puddles and enjoying the lovely rain.
At the turnaround I noticed my Garmin was showing some erratic numbers so I had no idea just how bad I was doing but knew it would get easier for the last 4.5 to the end. If I had the devils wind in my face on the way out I had the hand of god pushing me on the way back. My speed hardly dropped below 30 MPH and the only thing slowing me down was me!
I crossed the line slightly drier but with the 3 mile ride back to the HQ into wind it felt like I had more to do.
One of the best things about TT’s is the lovely ladies at the end with tea and cakes and today was no exception. After my second tea and cake the times went up and Ken had me at 24:03 which would be a personal best and put me in 8th place (only 17 finished) .I was sure this wrong so in the spirit of fair play I let the timekeeper know but he was adamant so I backed off. While I feel I had a short 24 in me the conditions were more like a long 25!
Back at home I loaded my Garmin stats on the PC and my average HR was 110, Max speed 56 MPH and average cadence 155 RPM so I could not trust that data so maybe the timekeeper was right, they normally are!
Results:
1. Adrian Lyons GC Invicta 21:08
2. Simon Henderson Thanet RC 21:54
3. Richard Williams Bigfoot CC 21:57
8. Ben Crick EGCC 24:03
