Ben Crick writes…
Southborough & District Wheelers Open 25 mile Time Trial – Sunday 15th June 2014 – G25/89
This was my 4th consecutive year entering the Southborough & District Wheelers Open 25 mile Time Trial held near Uckfield on G25/89 and I wondered if I could now consider my self an experienced TT man. As I queued for the loo I over heard a fellow, who frankly looked like a “lean lizard” , tell someone he had been doing this for 30 years so I thought maybe novice was still a fair title for me.
Out on the course we enjoyed cool and increasingly breezy conditions (extract from the results sheet) which I guess impacted me as I was off in the last 10 of the 59 starters. Not sure how I would go I controlled a steady start and realised after 5 miles that I was 20 secs up on my course PB but with a NW wind I knew there was help at hand. At the 15 mile point I was a minute up and started fantasizing about going close to the hour but as I turned back into the wind reality slowed me down and I crossed the line with a long 1:03.
Love or hate it, Strava does provide an opportunity for some analysis and looking at my Strava plots later I would see how the wind had helped me get a fair few PR’s but the last 6 miles was where the wind made me payback and my time was about a minute down on last year.
Chris Yates sliced through the wind and placed 5th with a 55:55 bagging him the best vet on standard, great ride!
1. Phil Allen (Lewes Wanderers) 0:54:06
5. Chris Yates 0:55:55
34. Ben Crick 1:03:54
