February 23rd marked the start of the 2014 season for two members of the Hull Thursday Racing Team, George Leighton and Will Thomas.

After a lot of tough training over winter in some pretty horrible conditions it was nice to dust of my time trial bike ready for the YCF 10 mile TT on the V910 course at Knottingley.

The day started for me at 6.30am getting a good breakfast in me and getting all the gear packed in the car ready to pick George up before heading to the HQ which was about a 50 minute drive down the M62 to Knottingley.

Arriving on cue

Once we arrived we promptly signed in before returning to the car and getting ready, George was first to start at 9.38am so I assisted him getting his bike ready and set up in the turbo for him to warm up using the routine used by Team Sky.

George’s effort

Naturally the nerves were starting to set in for George as he’d started to think he’d not trained enough and on top of all of that there were TT frames and disk wheels everywhere whilst George would be riding on his Moda Rubato road bike with clip-ons and some borrowed 40mm wheels.  Once he’d calmed his nerves it was helmet on then off to the start line after one last “good luck” from me.

“After the warm up I was ready to start and travelled down to the start line, feeling a bit nervous at this point. Number 7 went off, so this was my time to shine for the first time trial of the season, proudly wearing my HTRC kit. I was in the zone and focused. “3…2…1” and I was off. But the start wasn’t good for when I powered up I slipped out of my cleats losing precious time. Regaining focus I battled on, defeating strong winds on the way back”.

George has set his goal at 28 minutes for the event, which seemed very reasonable for his age, as well as the fact he would be riding a road bike. Once he’d returned he looked slightly disappointed in himself, when I asked how he did he said, “my Garmin said 30mins something and I unclipped as I set off because my cleats are worn out”, however, after going back into the HQ it became apparent there was some user error with his Garmin as he’d actually done a 28:20 which is an average speed of 21.18mph.

In the end George was only 20 seconds down on his target which I’m sure in the same conditions with his new cleats he would have definitely achieved, so overall he was very pleased with the outcome. Overall George came 59th out of 67 beating a senior and a few vets.

“Just like to say a big thank you to my race team for pushing me in strong winds as it paid off!”

 

 

Will’s effort

I was warming up as George had returned with my start time being 10.28am, when I’d heard the news from George and I was starting to think my target time of 25 mins was somewhat ambitious but nevertheless I carried on and didn’t let it bother me too much. I had the time set in my head and it was too late to change it. I was told how the course was extremely windy with a mostly tail wind going out with a few ramps to contend with and some bad cross winds on certain sections of the course.

Once I’d finished my warm up I headed to the start line somewhat later then planned and arrived as number 56 was setting off (I was number 58). Before I knew it I was off, I quickly got up to speed then settled into the aero position which was promptly followed by my Garmin beeping at me to say my heart rate was too high, it took a few minutes and lot of self discipline to settle into it and get my heart rate at a reasonable level so that I didn’t blow up before I could finish.

The route out wasn’t too bad, with my average speed sitting at around about 26mph in the first quarter, which headed north, and had a good tail wind pushing me along. In the second quarter the road started to curve west with a cross/tail wind which had it’s moments but I still managed to ride in a relatively straight line, it was here where the ramps started which dropped my average to around 25.5mph and also, to my surprise my minute man was a few hundred yards down the road, this was now a true test of self discipline, I carried on riding at my own pace knowing that it was only a matter of time until I’d catch him and it was pointless going hard as I’d suffer for it later on.

By the time I’d got to the roundabout that requires a U-turn I’d caught him so I stayed slightly back going round the roundabout as it didn’t really seem the safest place to pass then just opened up a bit earlier to get the job done before settling back into my aero position, shortly after the roundabout the hedge ways disappeared at the side of the road which allowed a dangerous cross wind to push me almost into the gutter before I managed to get back to the bull bars to give me back some control, once the hedges had reappeared I settled down again and spent the next few minutes fighting crosswinds that tried pushing me all over the place.

I remember looking down and seeing that I was almost seven miles in now and my average had dropped to just below 25mph now which was to be expected with the wind and the climbing.

Once the crosswinds had stopped I really got in the zone and was focusing on making circles with my feet then before I knew it I was in my last mile at which point I really started to ramp it up, then with about 0.6miles to go I’d passed the last roundabout before the finish and gave it absolutely everything I had and then some!

Finally I passed the finish line with a time of 24:50, 10 seconds quicker than the target time I’d set before knowing how windy it was going to be, that gives an average speed of 24.16mph and a finish place of 27th out of 67.

The quickest three times on the day were 21.54, 21.54 and 21.55 with no-one else breaking into the 21s.

 

 

Full results table can be found here:

 

CTT Website – Results YCF 10 Mile TT

 

Event photos are available here:

 

Two Wheels Good Photography – YCF 10 Mile TT

Kimroy Photography – YCF 10 Mile TT

 

Will Thomas
HTRC