BUCS Open 3 Up Team Time Trial

On Sunday 17th April, Dad and I were taking part in a three up team time trial organised by Bath University. We were taking part in the open event that ran in the morning, with the university competition in the afternoon. I was riding with my BCDS teammates; Charlie and George, and Dad with Charlie’s dad Simon, and George’s dad Russ.

We had attempted a course recce on the Tuesday, but 15 minutes in to this my rear tub exploded after hitting a nasty pothole, so that was the end of my ride, with the others continuing to ride the course after it became apparent that I was unable to continue.

We arrived in plenty of time, and met up with our teammates and got sorted out in terms of signing on and getting into kit.
All of us warmed up together doing the same, so got the team spirit going. By the end I was feeling good, and ready to go hard. We made our way to the start, and were soon away.

We started hard, and got away and up to speed well.
The first time up the sharp climb I was on the front, and kept it together. Once over the top I got it up to speed, and then changed.
Coming onto the A420 I was on the front, and I changed as I’d just done a turn and Charlie was going to pull it up to speed and along. Once at the speed we kept it up, changing when we started to fade. I ended up doing a shorter turn, as the climb was coming and I was going to pull up it, so we got changes in to give me a short recovery, going into the bottom of the climb in the best place possible.
Once on the climb I kept a steady pace, making sure my team mates kept together. Over the top I stayed on the front until we were up to speed, before changing. After a few more turns I began to feel the effects of the long effort up the climb.
Towards Castle Combe I missed a turn, as I was suffering and wanted a bit more recovery, as I thought it would be better to do it now rather than later.
Once I had recovered a bit, I was able to go hard again, and do long turns maintaining the speeds.

Near the end of the run I was feeling tired but strong, and I was confident that I could last at a high intensity. We were able to do the same stretches of road on the front as when we started, and we knew that worked.

Going up the final climb we stayed together. I then stayed on the front, as we went up the climb hard. I thought the finish was closer to the top of the climb, so I was emptying myself too early.
I was able to keep increasing the speed, and when I could see the finish I was relieved. The message was shared, and we all fanned out and sprinted for the line.
I was absolutely dead once past the line, and we had done a great ride that we were all pleased with.
We ended up riding a 54:27 for the 36Km, which was good enough for fourth overall and the quickest juvenile time by a fair distance. The dads team did a 58:48, which was a good time as they were plagued with technical difficulties.