gears would have been nice…

OK, I concede….today was the first time since I decided to ride all my TTs fixed that I actually really wanted some gears down at the back end… This morning was the South West District Championships and I really didn’t do as well as I should have done, just missing the top 10 by a handful of seconds in a field of 68. Things just didn’t go right this morning, I’ll make the excuses in a minute, hehe :o). but the bottom line is that I just didn’t “have it” today, I just could not find my groove and get on top of the gear. It happens. I suspect know I’m not really recovered from the race Thursday night either…

The forecast for this morning was grim – heavy rain and strong winds so waking up at 5.30am to still conditions and dry roads was a bonus… the rain did sweep in on the drive up to the race but had eased again by the time I reached HQ and stayed away all morning which was nice, no bike cleaning to be done this evening :o). The wind though was a different story… it didn’t feel too bad for the early starters off at 8 but I was a late start with an hour to wait, by 9am the wind had freshened to a solid force 6 from the south which, from my point of view was the worst possible direction for this course. The S100/10 is new this year, today the outbound (headwind) leg was longer than the return and with a long, steep climb to the turn. It was this that really killed me – my gear choice (99″) was fine for 97% of the course but fighting the wind up the climb I really could have done with a few extra teeth at the back, and a few less teeth for the tailwind descent on the return, I could not wind it up past 43mph. I might have been OK had I been on top form but I went and threw up on the climb (ugh…. made a mess on my skinsuit, not a nice thing to do riding into a strong headwind, hehe), a combination of effort and, I think, the painkillers I used this morning to dull the pain in my cracked ribs – they do upset my stomach slightly. After that I just couldn’t get it together…. So yeah, maybe I need to sort myself out with a geared bike for days like this… the S100 is going to be used a lot more now I think… I’ll have a chat with Steve over at Cyclelogic next week and see what is kicking around…. My fixed will always be my first choice though today I could probably have been riding this and it would not have made much difference….

I don’t have my exact placing yet, I’ll update this with results when I have them (updated: I was 12th, results in the comments field below.. Sean Childs’ ride was phenomenal!). I didn’t hang around for the prize-giving, being eager to head down to Portmellon and see my sister for lunch… which leads me on to my rant of the day…. With the warmer weather coming Cornwall is suffering the annual influx of “city folk on holiday” who haven’t got a clue how to cope with narrow windy roads… guys (and gals) if you’re reading… before heading down this way please, please learn where your reverse gear is…. freezing at the wheel with a panic stricken look on your face really is not helpful when you find yourself facing traffic in a road little wider than your car and the nearest passing place is just 5 yards behind you. I’ll help you, it’s easy to find, it looks like this:

Taking of width of your car… that’s another thing, learn how fu*kin’g (excuse language) wide it is please, your car, whatever it happens to be, is not wider than a bus and you don’t need 10 feet of clearance each side to pass me when I’ve kindly reversed 500 metres for you ‘cos you didn’t have a clue… (oh and bloody smile will you, you’re on holiday..) If I had my way I’d set up border controls and force everyone coming into Cornwall to have a reversing proficiency license…

Ok, rant over…. I’m off to glue some faster tubulars* on my TT wheels :o)

* specially for the bike geeks… I have been running Conti Competitions on my TT bike, not the fastest tub there is but very durable, last year I wrote off a few lighter (but faster) tubs so I decided to sacrifice the 7W or so of additional rolling resistance they’re supposed to have over a set of Veloflex jobs. I’ve managed to get my hands on a set of relatively rare (in the UK) 23mm wide Vittoria Corsa EVO CXs however which I can’t wait to try. The commonly available 21mm width doesn’t blend properly with the sidewall profile of the HED Stinger rims, 22-23mm as a package is better aerodynamically.