Lower Withington TT, 7 Jun 2023

It started well - it was a glorious sunny day, the roads were dry and I wasn’t late! Being my first ever TT I had no idea what to expect, so wanted to make sure I had enough time to sort myself out before the start. I was pleasantly surprised to find it was very low key and chilled. I parked in a field, signed up with the emergency fiver from my bike bag (perfect as I’d forgotten my purse) and wrote down some details on a piece of paper. They gave me a number 9. Everyone was so welcoming, especially when I told them it was my first ever TT; someone even did a recce of the course with me as a warm up.

Being number 9, my start time was 19:09. I got in line about 5 minutes before. Usually I’m super nervous before an event, but I actually felt excited for this. From lots of sprint and threshold sessions over winter, I knew I could do the distance, and going off in one minute intervals removed the pressure of a ‘race’. It was more about just giving it my best shot, especially as I didn’t have a time to beat.

The course was 10 miles as two 5 mile loops. In my head I was hoping for sub-30 minutes, so averaging over 20mph. Being in Cheshire it was really quite flat, however there was definitely still some undulation! The route started with a slight descent, and a tailwind that made me feel very speedy. I started getting my hopes up that I could try to average about 22mph, however about halfway into the first lap there was a tight gravelly turn and the speed dropped a lot. Note to self - I must practice cornering! After the corner, it was a gradual uphill into a gusty headwind for the second half of the lap. My heart rate was increasing and was well into threshold by now, but I was struggling to keep my speed up. This was a bit demoralising, but I tried not to let it get to me and just pushed as hard as I could! Thankfully the end of the lap was downhill, which allowed me to refresh and mentally prepare for lap 2. Unsurprisingly the second lap was harder. It very much followed the first, no dramas, but a bit less leg power and definitely more wind! The finish actually came about a minute before I expected, which was nice but I probably could’ve pushed a little harder at the end if I’d realised.

All in all, I really enjoyed the TT; it was good to push myself into the red HR zone whilst out on the roads, rather than just on a turbo. I was also super happy to come in at 29:30, however as always I think there is room for improvement! Some things I probably need to do: practice cornering, ride on my drop bars (I probably only did this for 1/3 of the time), and remember where the finish is!

Georgia Roberts