The belated (due to illness and injury) start of part 2 of my Open TT season meant three TTs this week, starting with the last club TT of the season. We ran this as a ‘fun night’ with people encouraged to ride non-standard bikes – I rode it on my 1986 Peugeot which I have used for a couple of TTs in the past. It’s always fun to ride this bike and especially to remember that, although I’m riding as hard as normal (from HR data) it’s much slower – over 4 minutes over ten miles! It felt fast while riding, especially as with the tailwind on the way back I was in my highest gear (52-13 for gear ratio fans) the whole way! My time was 26.08 which is my 10 mile PB on that bike by 1 second. A nice way to end the club TT season, which was also a series win for me.

The weekend had a 10 mile TT on a fast course on the Saturday afternoon, and a 25 mile TT on a rolling course early on the Sunday morning. Saturday brought a brisk southerly wind, which was going to mean a hard effort on the way out followed by (hopefully) a very fast return. I was nervous beforehand as I haven’t ridden a dual carriageway TT in a long time, but the attraction of a fast time is always there. It was certainly hard on the way out and the gusty wind made the bike hard to handle (I probably wasn’t as relaxed as I would have liked either). I missed my power target on the way out which I wasn’t happy about, but the return leg was indeed very fast (spinning out my highest gear on occasions for the second time this week – this time a 56-11 though!). I finished with a time of 20.15 – my fastest for quite some time and not far off my PB for the course of 19.58 considering the unfavourable wind. Fairly happy with that, and even happier with my placing of 21st (in a stacked field!) compared with the Spindata predicted 34th.

During the evening we had the news that the course for the next morning needed to be shortened due to unexpected roadworks, to an awkward 13.7 miles. This was a gently rolling single carriageway course on quiet roads early on the Sunday morning (8.05am start) – completely the opposite experience to the day before! The brisk southerly wind was still there, and on this course it meant it was equally hard each way – on the way out overall uphill but with a slight tailwind added to the crosswind, and the reverse on the way back. I was a little disappointed with my average power over the ride but finished 2 places above my Spindata prediction of 7th so fairly happy with that.

Tim Phillips

A tale of three TTs, 31 Aug-4 Sep 2022

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