STARTER FOR 10
If you’re thinking about dipping a toe into racing, 10-mile time trials are a short, sharp, uncomplicated place to begin...
I’d still manage a personal best, even if I had to walk across the finish line dragging my broken bike beside me
The UK time-trialling scene has plenty of the old school about it. Who else is still using cheques as a primary method of entry, other than Cycling Time Trials, the governing body for the sport in the UK? But as much as my first race’s setting of a village hall (Goostrey, Cheshire) populated by quirky characters feels like a trip to a bygone era, there’s a dichotomy. Peering out of the window, I see the cyclists I’ll be competing against today, warming up on their turbos, headphones covering their ears and zoned out in their own worlds, aboard cuttingedge machines, wearing cutting-edge kit – no doubt many having their own coaches and are following the latest training techniques.
I say competing against, but for many of the experts I spoke to in advance of this race, the lure of timetrialling is that it’s mostly a competition against only yourself. So as intimidating as it could have been when I saw the ‘competition’ warming up in the car park, my only concern ahead of my first ever time trial was taking care of business on my side. It was what Matt Bottrill, champion tester turned cycling coach, had told me: “Don’t be distracted by what anyone else is doing. Your first TT is about enjoying and learning.” He was right: catastrophe could strike but I’d still manage a personal best.
As someone who’d previously existed on a diet of road bikes, it quickly became clear that a whole new set of habits had to be learned. With the gears situated on the TT bars and the brakes on the hoods, I’d have to become familiar with when it was safe to be down on the bars and when not – particularly on busy roads. Just getting into and out of the TT position, especially on sharp bends and tricky descents, wasn’t as easy as the pros make it look on TV.
For the purposes of my first TT, I wanted to keep things as simple as possible. I didn’t even attach a computer to my bike, remembering Bottrill’s instructions of no distractions and taking him at his absolute word.
Still, I felt it important to get an understanding of what my tactics should be for my first 10, even if everyone seems to have different ideas. Bottrill was quite emphatic in his rule number one for pacing: “Don’t start too fast!!” He said a sound strategy depends on several factors,
including wind direction and terrain, but that you “need to make your hardest effort into the wind, not go into the red on climbs, and lay the power on over the crest rather than dying at the top”. To make all that possible, he suggested that I should “start slowly as if I’m holding myself back for the first three minutes”.
That advice is in contrast to what Richard Bussell, a former 10-mile British national champion, told me. He admits most wouldn’t agree with him, but says his strategy has served him well: “I would say go out a bit harder than you think because you’ll always regret coming to the end and not being fully empty. You can always do better than you think if you go hard and believe in yourself,” he pointed out, adding that the mental side of 10s is almost as important as the physical: “A lot of people could [potentially] do the same times as I do, but they maybe don’t have it mentally and end up backing off.”
As the 10-second countdown to my race commences, I warn the chap holding me in position that I’ve never done this before and that I might end up in a heap on the floor when he let go. I’m not thinking about starting slow or going full whack, just about keeping the bike upright.
Within the opening revolutions, though, the tension evaporates and I feel myself naturally opting for the Bussell tactic of going full gas from start to finish. Riding 10 miles isn’t a daunting distance even at your limit. Yes, it’s going to hurt for 20 to 30 minutes, but even if you blow, the end is never going to be too far off. As a result, it’s the easiest time trial distance to fully commit to from a mental standpoint.
With a left-hander onto the A535, I have the benefit of an almighty tailwind all the way to the turn at the Chelford roundabout at the six-mile mark, which helps get me attuned to the speed of these races. Passing my minute man (the rider who started one minute ahead of me) just after the turn is a shot in the arm for my confidence, even though I don’t have the faintest clue about the speed I’m averaging or how this other chap himself is doing.
It could be the adrenaline, it could be the affect of having a number on my back or it could be the searing pain in my thighs and the metallic, bloody taste in the back of my throat (that I often get during hard efforts) distracting me from any pain in my arms and shoulders, but sitting in the TT position wasn’t an issue at all during the length of my trial.
After the finish there’s a right-hand turn back towards Goostrey, signalled by a man gesturing with a giant inflatable pink hand. I finally get a chance to sit up on the hoods and I’m dazed and confused after a punishing return into the wind that left me grovelling for the finish.
Back at HQ, I reward myself with a tea and a caramel slice from Joan, Jean and Mavis in the kitchen while waiting for my result, and chat with Nigel Haigh, who won the prestigious Anfield 100 in 2014 and has ridden this Goostrey course many times.
My time, 24:36, is commendable, he says, for a first race, particularly on what he believes is a tough course with a rough surface and staged in very poor conditions. I feel pretty chuffed with myself. While I didn’t have a specific target in mind, I thought 25 minutes would be a nice time to break through.
It had been more enjoyable than a 10-mile ride on nondescript A-roads has any right to be and I can only repeat Bottrill’s words in describing my first toe-dip into TT waters: “I love the feeling of speed. You can switch off from everything, forget about day-to-day stress and just focus on riding your bike.”
Add to that tea, cake and entertaining company, all for eight quid, and I know it won’t be my last time trial.
To find a time trial in your area, head to the website of the sport’s governing body in Great Britain, Cycling Time Trials: cyclingtimetrials.org.uk
It had been more enjoyable than a 10mile ride on nondescript A-roads has any right to be