A recurring theme this year has been one of adapting my bike so that I can ride more comfortably in the time trial position. I'd ridden the Verulam CC '25' on the relatively new F8/25A course near Hemingford and had a bit of a tough time as a consequence of discomfort. I had a set of Aerocoach Accalon extensions on order, and I was hopeful that they would really sort out this discomfort. As it turned out, they arrived just the day before the VTTA event and I decided to fit them straight away. This, of course, is in direct contravention of Team Grumpy Rule #2 (Don't tinker with your bike the evening before the event. It will break, either then or, worse still, during the event), but I figured I had a backup bike if anything went awry.
I'd been offered a lift over to this event by a friend, which I gratefully accepted. We did have a bit of SatNav induced hassle actually finding the race HQ. This was despite this being the same HQ as was used at the Verulam event! However that was nothing compared to the horrible drive home, of which more later.
When we arrived, we found parking was a bit difficult as the venue used as an HQ was also hosting a football match - we ended up parking in the street. We were all changed and the bikes were set up in good time for a warmup. I found it quite pleasant temperature-wise - not so hot that racing would be uncomfortable. Unfortunately there was a rather stiff wind that promised to make things a bit tough out on the rather exposed dual carriageway.
As it turned out, this was an issue after the first turn, with about 8 miles plugging away into the wind to the second turn. Then a lovely tailwind to the third turn (the same turn as the first one), then the last few miles to the exit slip to the finish seemed interminable to me. Despite the wind, I could tell I was going better than I had done at the Verulam event a few weeks earlier. I felt more comfortable on the bike and I could see this reflected in my average speed. And back home, my progress was being watched via Garmin's tracking feature.
I crossed the line in 0:58:39, which I felt was a pretty good result given the season I've had. In perspective, this is how I placed:
"Age Adjusted" is just a different way of expressing the old VTTA +/- age-related handicapping system. It shouldn't be taken to suggest that my ride was the equivalent of a 51:41 ride! I notice that I went a fair bit faster than the Spindata prediction, which was probably based on my ride at the Verulam event a few weeks earlier. All in all, I was pretty pleased with how this event had gone. Just a pity it had taken me all season to get to this point!
I mentioned earlier that the drive home was really pretty fraught. When returning from the Verulam event, we drove over to the A1 and headed south to the Black Cat roundabout, which has been undergoing significant construction work for some time now. That didn't present much difficulty on that occasion. Unfortunately, when we reached the Black Cat, we were directed back north up the A1. We ended up having to do some complicated seat of the pants navigation to get back on track. Took ages!