Ulster TT Medal at last

Ulster 50 mile TT Championship

It was an early start to get down to the Woodgreen velodrome. Signed on as per usual pretty much last, I was down in good time and set the bike up on the turbo, and then went for a dander about and had a bit of banter with various people about the paddock. Great to see Bran McKinney out again, without his injury issues he would have been a contender today. 

Where does the time go?

I looked at my clock and it read 9:10am where does the time go I'm off in 15 minutes!! I ripped the skinsuit on and pulled the bike off the turbo trainer and threw the disc wheel on, a warmup wasn't going to happen in the short time frame I had to eat my now customary snickers feast and load up with enough fluid to see me through 2 hours in the July heat.

I made my way down to the starting point throwing in a couple of sprints to try and shock my legs into life! before I knew it I was on the start line with Gordon counting me down from 30 seconds! 

And I'm off!

I usually know within the first minute or so if I have good legs or not, BAD LEGS! Its going to be a long day I thought to myself! I'm looking down at my power and thinking thank god its not a 10, I'd be last! My heart rate wasn't reacting at all I was throwing out 350 watts and it was sitting at a leisurely 130BPM! is 3 minutes into a 50 too soon to deploy a caffeine gel I thought to myself, that might get the cardio vascular system activated...

The first twenty miles where a real struggle couldn't get my heart rate up at all, I settled into a 330w average, for the legs it was a real struggle but I was hardly out of breath I could have held a conversation with someone next to me, for some reason my heart and lungs didn't want to play ball, the legs where doing everything and had to be consciously turned round. With myself not just firing on all cylinders I concentrated on making everything else good, i.e my pacing and my position on the bike. I never looked to the other side of the road I just concentrated everything on myself and the effort that I was putting out.

Time for your Rations

We only have one bottle cage on the TT bikes so your running with a 700ml bottle and a few gels and those have to be duly rationed out over the portion of the course. I choose to have mine during the trips around the roundabouts it stops me forgetting which is easy to do when your so concentrated on turning the legs with some sort of rhythm.

My milage clock now read 15 miles to go the wind had picked up and the course started to feel slow. Thankfully my heart rate and lungs were working a little better and I started to find everything a little less of a struggle. I was able to open the taps a bit more, but still being careful not to get too carried away. 

The last 10 miles I really started to push on and was able to lift the pace more and more as I got towards the finish! 3 miles to go and I let the flood gates open and the legs started to respond nicely! The finish line sits at the top of a short drag, which is absolutely brutal after you have been hammering it for 50 miles, you have no choice but to empty yourself up it as every second counts in this game!

The scores are on the board

By the time I had done a short cool down and made my way back to see how my time stacked up against everyone else, John Heverin was just finishing he also gave all on the last hill and looked to finish very strong. 

Colm Cassidy had made the long trip up to do the event, as he isn't from Ulster he wasn't eligible for the championship so I knew it would be John Heverin, John Madden and myself shooting it out for the top spots. 

47.44 2014 Ulster TT Champion

Maurice gave me a pat on the back indicating I had the fastest time of the Ulster men with 47.44.  The two Johns not very far off my time and were both very quick to congratulate me, not only great testers but great sports. The bar his been set high by those two and if you take a look back through time trialing in Ulster over the last number of years those are two names you will see most of the time occupying the top spots. To get the best out of ourselves it takes having great competition and they certainly bring that in droves.

Colm Cassidy Posted the fastest time of the day, given he was 4 seconds off winning the Elite National Championships the other week was great to have him along, conditions a bit tougher today than last year and I'm sure on a better day he would have pushed the all time record for 50 miles set last year pretty close, well done Colm great effort.

Well done to John Madden also who picks up the Vets prize, Eileen Burns who won the women's prize and Ballymoney who won the Team Prize.

Some Photos by Alicja Černák Thanks

John Madden, Myself, Colm Cassidy, John Heverin

Some Photos by Josh Murray

Thanks Marryland Wheelers

Great event run by Maryland Wheelers, the marshalling at the roundabouts was brilliant so thank you to those that stood out this morning to keep us safe. As always great time keeping by Gordon Parker and thanks to all others that were involved.

For the data junkies here are the stats:

Click to view full data on Garmin Connect

Distance: 50 Miles
Average speed: 27.8mph
Average Heart Rate: 151 BPM (Low even by my standards!)
Average Power: 329W