Sunday
– Recce ride for the first SEWTT’S time trial at Bletchingley
This year there’s been a
great new TT series in the South East created for women riders of all
abilities. I haven’t done many TT’s in my cycling life so far, only ones
attached to road races. So I have decided to enter the series this year to help
improve my time trialling as I know it’s probably my biggest weakness at the
moment and I want to change this. Jasmijn, who’s riding in the series,
organised a ride today for any women who wanted to recce the first TT circuit,
riding there and back from Kingston. So I decided to go on the ride today, it
was really great to be able to understand the circuit better so that I know
better how to pace myself in the real event.
The 3 of us set off early
from Kingston at 8:30, but Josephine towards the beginning of the ride decided
to ride back home so it was just me and Jasmijn for the majority of the ride. And a very hilly ride it was as well!! Over
1,200m elevation in a 55 mile ride, so lots of steep hills we had to contend
with on the ride today. Not to mention a strong crosswind which seemed determined
to knock us off our bikes! Apart from this I did have a fun time on the ride as
well, at one point we were standing at a major junction at some traffic lights,
waiting for the lights to change. This seemed to take forever so we assumed
that the traffic lights must have been sensitive to cars waiting there and
there were no cars waiting with us. Eventually we realized why the lights still
hadn’t changed, we were looking at the wrong lights!! The lights that we were
actually supposed to be looking at were now green so we could set off laughing
about our silly mistake!
The TT course itself was
rather an interesting circuit, very up and down. A difficult start to the
course, firstly having to join the main road and then a long drag which was deceivingly
tough. Then after this currently there are some temporary traffic lights before
a sharp left turn, hopefully those traffic lights will be removed before the
TT, otherwise it’ll be a lot down to luck if you get stopped by the lights!
This is then followed by a good descent, not too many sharp corners so this is
definitely a section you can really push on the pedals. The next part of the
course is my favourite, nice smooth generally flat roads. However then the
horrible part of the circuit comes, 3 steep hills, which you’ll definitely need
a nice easy gear and some energy left in the tank to not lose too much time on
this section. Overall, it’s certainly going to be a difficult circuit to
contend with but it’s certainly helped recceing the circuit. I’ll be doing the
TT on 23rd March.
I was certainly tired by the
end of this ride, after finding going up some of the hills particularly tricky.
This was partly because I need to sort out the gearing on my bike as I need a
easier gear because when I moved up to junior gearing this year I lost a few of
my easier gears which this ride has taught me I need. Also a tough ride
considering I’m just recovering from being ill (which was why I didn’t do
anything on my bike last weekend) and on the ride I didn’t feel back to full health
and fitness.
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