John: 6/7 January 2017 Weekend Racing & Training

​Busy weekend cycling! First up was the Friday Individual Time Trial along Ceremonial Road sponsored by Rasen Sports, organised by QCR / QCF.

I've ridden along this stretch of road in training, innumerable times, but with high wind speeds and little relief in either direction this was a brutal test. Heading into the wind, putting out 300w but only going 32kph gives some idea, and I'm not that heavy! I'm also not that experienced or good at riding TT where the objective is to go out hard from the start, and empty yourself over a relatively short distance. I think on my preferred longer races, I like to go off a bit more conservatively and use the start of the race to complete my warm-up.

However, having completed the 18.7km I was pleasantly surprised to find that my 35.5kph average speed was sufficient for 2nd Place in the Men's 'C' Category. It's a nice feeling to be on the Podium again, and maybe with some more effort from me, and by following the excellent training programme provided by my Coach, Szymon - I can improve on this result over the year.

I was particularly proud of Jenn who rode 2-laps in the Women's 'A' Race which was great training and particularly hard against the wind on her regular road bike with no tri-bars. 

Sunday saw us on the MTB's in order to get in a bit of endurance training and experience of riding together in a Team, with a bit of practice sorting my flat tubeless tyre - hopefully we'll avoid the thorns in SA (see pic below)!