After an easy 25 mile ride on Saturday for all four Tourmalet riders, including Pete, finally back after his knee operation, this weekend finished on a high for three of us - Marwood, Simon and myself.On Sunday, the three of us won the veterans prize of a bottle of fine Italian wine each for our efforts in a 3-up team time trial held on a fast but windy 25 mile course on the A3 near Liphook, Hampshire.
As Simon and I know all too well, it is easy to get psyched out at the start of these events while observing the impressive time trial bikes, skin suits and aero helmets used by the serious riders. As we got ready most of the participants were warming up on their turbo trainers and the sweet smell of embrocation filled the air. But not to be deterred we had a short warm-up ride and made off for the start.
There was a fair bit of piss-taking here by the three starters;
"Hey, these guys have got spokes in their wheels" one said (most riders in TT's now have disc or mag style wheels).
The name of our club also confused them "With a name like Wayfarers Wheelers are you going to stop off at the cafe?" said another. Ha ha, I thought.
Anyway, we didn't post a fast time but at 1:08:56 for the 25 miles, it was 10 minutes faster than my most recent solo effort over the same distance. And, thanks to our combined efforts, enough to win the vets prize. We achieved an average of 21.7 mph so it was also faster than the standard time expected for riders of our age.
Plus, as it was a new course, Marwood pointed out that we must now hold the veterans course record!
It was a very pleased but sheepish trio who went up to collect our wine at the presentation immediately after the event as we were all aware of the mind bogglingly impressive times posted by more experienced riders. But at least now we know what we can aim at and there is no way we would ride flat out in training in the same way, the element of competition clearly drives the pace.
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