10 mile TT race, 9 Aug 2026

I signed in at the HQ then cycled for 20 mins to get to the start, an uphill warm-up!

We gathered at the start and amongst the road bikes there was a mixed group of riders - some wearing trainers, some wearing skinsuits and aero helmets.

I’ve only done two time trials before and they have both been on the same course, so this was a new one for me. The race was held on a section of the A30, which is the main road running right down the middle of Cornwall. The race was held at 8am on a Sunday so that the road would be a bit quieter but it was still quite busy and was a little scary having cars whizzing past at 70mph!

The race started on a side road parallel to the main road so there was a short section on that before approaching a roundabout and then entering the A30 via a slip road. There was a hesitant driver at the roundabout just in front of me so I had to wait for them but otherwise it was quite smooth after that. After about 10 minutes of riding, I approached another rider, and was surprised to see it wasn’t the rider that I’d seen wearing trainers! I overtook her and looked out for the next rider.

We took the slip road down to a roundabout, went all the way around and back up a slip road to enter the dual carriageway again, to head back in the same direction, finishing at a layby. Not long before the layby, I overtook the lady wearing trainers and the first lady to be set off, I could then see another rider in the distance. I pushed on to try and catch them up, completely missing the sign telling me to go into the layby, and I stayed on the main road. I carried on and went into the layby at the far end, and not long after I had got there, the lady wearing trainers crashed straight into me. If she hadn’t used me to stop then she would have gone straight onto the road and collided with a car! Luckily I just had a few scrapes on my arm and leg, and although my seat was twisted, the bike seemed ok on the ride back to HQ.

I actually read the TT race guide this time and tried to bear the tips in mind when I was riding. My time was 25.27, which is 3 minutes faster than my previous time, although this was a much smoother road, and when I look at the stats, the average power of my last race was much higher.

Sarah Hunter