The second of this year’s Classic Series of sporting (hilly) course TTs was in the Peak District - the course is essentially up a long climb out of Longnor village, along a rolling road at the top and then back down into the village via a couple of sharp bends and additional climbs. And then do it again, making a tough 22 mile course. I was signed up to do this course in 2019 but a Di2 mech that ate itself the night before meant I wasn’t able to do it, and it’s been on my bucket list since.

I arrived with enough time to drive the course, which made me nervous all over again about the first steep bit - did I have a low enough gear on my TT bike? I would soon be finding out! It was a beautiful morning by this time and my warmup was the first of the year where I’ve actually been warm when I completed it!

The start is a little uphill drag followed by a short descent, and couple of corners and then ‘the wall’. I needed to be out of the saddle for this short section, then I tried to settle in for the rest of the climb, which continues for a few minutes, eases off a little, then gets steep again before a short flat/downhill part and a final steep climb up towards the first junction. I was roughly on my power target for this first section, which meant some recovery was in order. What I hadn’t known from driving the course (and which wasn’t noticeable down in the village) was that the wind had changed from the predicted direction and was a brisk block headwind! So not nearly as much recovery as needed along here, and I was still on my knees by the second turn into the downhill section (which actually starts with another short climb!).

The downhill section was definitely one that would have benefitted from pre-riding on the bike, as it was very fast in places (70 km/h plus) with some corners that it was hard to know how fast to take, and a tricky narrow section through a small hamlet that we’d had dire warnings about beforehand. After this there was another short and steep climb (back into lowest gear) and more descent down to the village. Here you start to climb again past the start/finish area (see you later!) to do the lap again. The plan was to do as near as possible the target powers on the climbs again, and early in the climb that was going ok, even with a detour around another rider and some wheelspin on gravel on the steepest part. But towards the top of the climb the legs started to go and I couldn’t keep the power up, just had to do the best I could to the top, ready(ish) for the headwind section again. That was painful but eventually it was over, and I managed to carry some more speed on the descent than on lap 1 (with more practice could definitely be faster), before a final push up the climb to the finish.

On finishing I was shocked to see 1:05 come up on my Garmin - I had been aiming for 1:02 or so, and had thought I had mostly ridden to plan. It was also the first time this season that I haven’t beaten both my Spindata predicted time and position, coming a disappointing 11th.

Tim Phillips

Classic Series TT Rd 2, 15 Apr 2022

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