Stowmarket CC 20mile Hilly TT, 10 Apr 2022

This was another event that I have raced before - I rode the course twice in 2019, once as a 2-up and once solo. The aim for this time was to do about as well as last time (ideally a bit better). It was certainly warmer than last time (when it hailed!) but the wind wasn’t ideal, being a direct headwind for the middle part of the course which also includes the longest upward drag.

After a reasonable warmup, I had an awkward moment when I rolled back to the car to dump my jacket, only to find that I seemed to have locked myself out of the car! “No time to worry about that now, worry about it later” was the plan, and I rolled off to the start. The first section felt good, with a series of punchy climbs and short descents (and some tailwind!) before turning left onto the section that I wasn’t looking forward to. The early section with the uphill gradient I managed at target power, but after that when the hill eased off, the headwind didn’t, and suddenly my legs felt empty with a good few miles to go before the much anticipated left turn and the final few miles for home. Here I should have done some more course research instead of relying on memory from 3 years ago - I couldn’t remember exactly when the turn was coming which made it seem longer, and I also forgot that after the first left at the end of the headwind section, there was another sharp left at the bottom of a fast descent. Cue rapid emergency braking, a locked up rear wheel and a very nervous moment (plus some time lost).

After that it was a fast run back towards the finish and a final squeeze before rolling back to the carpark, where I found that luckily I was able to get into my car after all! In the HQ I found I was a few seconds slower than last time (47:17 versus 47:10, probably in fact a better ride given the conditions) and 5th instead of 6th place so reasonably happy!

Tim Phillips

Julian Bosley