This was a main event for my year and certainly the longest time trial – a 39 mile hilly course in Worcestershire. I did the event last year, although road works meant the course was changed from the usual course - one of the hardest races I had ever done but also fantastic. My aim for this year was to put in a good performance, get another round of the National Classic Series in and generally have a Type 2 fun day out!

The week leading up to the event wasn’t promising – a disappointing result the week before after a series of pleasing ones, work stress, and then on Thursday and Friday feeling quite unwell so I missed my training session and hoped I felt better the next day. On Saturday morning I did feel a bit better, did my pre-race ride which was ok – not great but ok – and decided I would still race. I had booked a hotel room to avoid a super early start so in the evening I drove over and recced the part of the course that I hadn’t done before – the main feature being Ankerdine hill which seemed fearsomely steep in the car – what would it be like on a TT bike!?

After a reasonable night’s sleep and some major carb loading, I arrived at HQ in plenty of time. The course is very much of two halves: part 1 is a rolling TT course, downhill overall on the way out and then dragging back up before you pass HQ after 17 miles, then part 2 is three main hills in succession (including the ‘new’ third one), finishing with a long drag back up the first hill you came down at the start. My plan was to go steady for the first half (but still faster than last year), hit power targets for the first two hills and then just do the best I could for the last hill and the rest of the course.

At the start I was all set (and as nervous as anything) and after the off things were going fine, for the first minute or so! Then my chain unshipped on a little hill that required going back into the little ring, so a frantic and oily few seconds were spent wrenching it back in place. After that my gears were making a ticking noise – I’m not sure why – but it was time to carry on and hope they held up. After about 9 miles the mostly gently downhill section was just about done. I wasn’t feeling fantastic at this point and then BANG – I think it was the sharp edge of a drain cover that I went over. A few seconds later and it was obvious that the front tyre was going down and I rolled to a halt eventually (I was going fast at the time). I thought briefly about the TT puncture repair kit that I had left in the car, but realised as I was walking towards the next marshal post that realistically I would just have been fixing my wheel to ride back to HQ, not to continue with the race minutes down. At least it was a lovely morning for a walk, and then a chat to the marshals waiting for a ride back.

I’m beyond disappointed by this – these things happen of course, and I’ve never had a puncture in a TT (or indeed any other mechanical) before so it had to happen at some point – but it really does feel like all the hard work training towards long events and the stress and worry leading up to it was all for nothing! Ah well, onwards and upwards!

Tim Phillips

Classic Series TT Rd 3, 24 Apr 2022

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