Castle Combe 10

On Wednesday both me and Laura were racing the DB Max 10 mile TT at Castle Combe, which was the first time we’d done an official time trial at Combe, having done a few unofficial ones last year during Andy Cook’s Tuesday rides. But with decent conditions and a track clear of little kids, it had the potential to be a quick night and hopefully a few Pbs to be broken.

We got there a little later due to bike issues and technicalities for Laura, so was in a bit of a rush to get signed on and into kit, luckily I’d realised this on the way over and had time to change into kit, especially putting on Velotoze, which was great entertainment in itself listening to Laura trying to get them on for the first time!

After signing on I ended up riding round the circuit to warm up, as there was no way I was going to take the disc and deep section down a country lane to get from the car park on to the road, and with time against me, 30 minutes or so on the circuit warmed me up well, also giving me an opportunity to see what conditions were like, and do a couple of short efforts.

From the set off I went out quite hard, and after looking down at the numbers told myself to reign it in a bit, but the legs didn’t seem to listen so I kept pushing, and just hoped I wouldn’t park up too much later on. was still surprised with how well I was going towards the mid point, with not slowing down and going even faster, doing the calculations in my head as I rode, anything to distract from the pain!

Inside the last half I started to die, and the last couple of laps became very tough. Normally when I time trial I have enough to ramp it up, but this wasn’t an option. I was just trying to hold the same level, which was proving increasingly difficult.

Going into the final lap I was properly on the edge, knowing I was on for a decent ride and time, although the legs were falling off. in the final part of the time trial where normally I can up it I was unable to push more power out, and my final sprint for the line was very laboured, nothing left. Splits later showing what I thought, the last two laps I’d parked up quite well, losing 5 seconds a lap over my quicker laps!

Think i then did my slowest lap of Combe, taking around 9 mins, not even able to power a energy efficient light bulb most of the time!

I ended up winning the junior category, and placing third overall, but more pleasing was doing a 40 second Pb and also a Pb for power significantly, proving that i just need to ride harder!