National TT Champs 2014
The morning started with making the bike UCI compliant, I tried to re-create the UCI jig and came to the conclusion the bars were 60mm too long so it was out with the saw to shorten them. The saddle looked to be ok for the 50mm behind the bottom bracket so that stayed as was. I got down in good time for once and into sign on where I was faced with the dreaded jig.. rolled the bike over to it and handed it to the guys in blue shirts. I was stood over at the wall and measured for height and was 5mm off the 190cm mark which would have allowed a further 50mm of front bar length! The bike passed the check and I could have had an extra 10mm of bar, so I cut a little too much off (or else their jig was wrong I'm actually thinking it was the latter as they were not too fussy about the centre of the bottom bracket point?). I asked was a flashing rear light required they said no but I elected to keep this on., with the very poor visibility it seamed like a good idea, I wasn't too concerned about the few seconds that might be saved by taking it off.
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| My cut TT bars to make the bike legal/dangerous |
It was back out into the lashing rain and off to drive the course to get some sort of feel for it. I noted a few of the more technical areas of the course.
I waited until around 40 minutes before my start time then I pulled out the bike and got onto the turbo. I knew instantly the shorter bar length was going to be an issue I simply hadn't anything to grip the shifters were now what I was holding and when in anything toward the bottom of the cassette I had nothing in the right hand but a fist full of air.
I reported to the start hut 10 minutes prior to launch time where again the bike was re-checked to make sure it was still legal, which it was. I had a fairly early start time with the familiar club colours of a Newry wheeler in front of me. Behind me was another Ulster rider Mike Millar who looked to have had even a bigger nightmare with bike set-up than me, he was essentially left with no breaks (I think due to some 10cm rule of components having to fall between) and a bike that had the turning circle of a bus, due to how he had to move the bars to be within the parameters of the rules.
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| Mike and I discussing how we are going to ride our UCI legal bikes |
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| Enjoying the Irish weather |
7:39:00 And I'm Off!
I set off well and made the catch of my minute man around the 5 mile mark, pushed through deploying a gel as I came out of the first roundabout. We both took it pretty slow taking no chances in the wet. legs were feeling fine but I was struggling with the new position if I moved the hands back to get a better grip my knees where hitting my elbows, and forward to a more powerful position I was essentially holding bugger all and had little control of the bike. |
| Setting off on my first national TT |
Pushing back towards the starting village I was coming across a fair bit of traffic, slower riders with support vehicles in my way and it was an issue on a couple of occasions the cars not moving or pulling over in good time.
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| Trying to stay relaxed |
Coming back through the start village after passing 5 or so other riders I was a bit cautious and knocked the speed back maybe too much to safely negotiate a roundabout, visibility was pretty poor at this point as the visor was heavily steamed up which meant I had to stick the head up into the wind a little too much.
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| Back through the Vilage |
I had good pace up the big drag which led into a very fast downhill to a dead stop turn in the middle of the road. A 55 chainring was missing from my setup with the fast down hill sections i was struggling for enough gears when the pace was up. into the dead turn and back up the climb which was being treated as a finish line almost as the run back into the finish line and start village was only a few miles off the top.
Over the top of the climb I pushed hard onto the finish and put out 390 for the final 6mins of the time trial the finish came about a mile too soon as I was expecting a 23 mile course it worked out a little more like 22. Finishing with an average of around 360 watts. I had targeted around 370 but the new position cost me the most of this and also some of the technical aspects of the course to a certain extent where I took it a little easier to not bin the bike with the wet roads.
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| Sean Rowe capturing me race towards the finish line |
Finished!
After I finished I popped into the registration hall where a TV monitor was setup with timings. I was top of the board effectively the leader for now which was quite cool. My score weathered the next number of riders well and then the big guns started to roll though and I started to slip down the pecking order! |
| Leader for now! |
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| Final Results Top 15 |
All in all it was a positive experience lots to take away from it and not bad for a cyclist that started out 2014 as an A3 rider.
Final word of thanks to the Lake side wheelers who had the course well marshalled and put on a great event. Plenty of people out giving encouragement which was cool. The electronic chip timing was also a great job. And also mum who came along to give support and capture a few photos.
The Official Results:
In grey are those that are Under 23 and don't form part of the senior results but a time trials is a time trial so for me I was 10th and not 7th. Riders that I have underlined are full time athletes.Ryan Mullen (An Post-Chainreaction) 44:09
Michael Hutchinson (InGear) 44:55
Colm Cassidy (UCD CC) 44:59
Martyn Irvine (Unitedhealthcare) 45:09
Matt Brammeier (Synergy Baku) 46:11
Ian Richardson (UCD CC) 46:46
Sean Hahessy (Carrick Iverk Produce) 46:53
Daniel Stewart (East Antrim Audi) 47:10
Connor McConvey (Synergy Baku) 47:16
Sean McIntyre (Orchard CC) 47:30
Felix English (Rapha Condor) 47:31
Conor McIlwaine (Terra Footwear) 48:05
Colm Quinn (Cuchulainn CC) 48:45
Neill Delahaye (DID Dunboyne) 48:47
Dylan Foley (Aquablue) 48:52
