Hills of Truth
Having ridden road races in recent weeks I fancied a change of scene, so I chose this weekend to ride the Bedfordshire Road Cycling Club time trial advertised as 'The Hills of Truth'... it sounds right up my street. Not quite as hilly a time trial as the days Giro D'Italia stage but tough enough all the same.
I also managed to press gang Gareth Smith to enter.... he's a sucker for punishment.
The race was to be two laps of their tough 11.3 mile circuit; Now, I rode this course when I was a lad many times and it was testing back then, they used to call it the Beds Road 12 because this was before GPS computers. It is similar to our Abbotsley 11.2 mile TT course (a bit lumpy with some open sections that can catch you out on a windy day) perhaps a little bit tougher than ours as it features Hill Foot and Mox Hill.... in this case 'twice'.
Based on my recent form where I am averaging about 25MPH round Abbotsley I estimated that I would average about 24MPH round this course, so my realistic target for the 22.6 miles was 56.30 and Gareth (on a standard road bike with no aero bars) was aiming for close to or just under the hour.
We were granted pretty good weather conditions, some sun and only a light wind. At the club house we were welcomed buy some of our good friends from Beds Road plus there were also riders from local clubs Icknield, CC Luton, Equipe Velo, Hitchin Nomads, CC Ashwell and of course Peterborough CC. A good atmosphere all-round.
I can tell you that despite the good conditions the TT was very hard, as all time trials are expected to be, but there is a big difference between riding 11.3 and 22.6 miles. I was about 30 seconds faster on my first lap than my second, I suppose I should have held back a little on the first lap and paced a little better, but overall I am happy with my performance. My final time was 56.54, very close to my prediction. This placed me in joint 6th place with my minute man. Gareth Smith did a respectable 1:01:13. The event was won by regular SNCC chain ganger Jason Green from Beds Road CC with a remarkable 52.30.
Another enjoyable event, thanks to Beds Road CC.
Simon Rinaldo
22/5/16