Dominic Watts

In case you’re an utterly normal human being then you might need some help with translating the Enigma like code above.

Hemsworth – fairly easy, a small town somewhere between Barnsley and Wakefield

YCF – Yorkshire Cycling Federation.  New to me, I didn’t know there was one

10TT – 10 mile time trial, if you know me then you might have worked out that it was going to be time trial or Timothy Taylor, possibly the world’s finest brewery.

O10/9 – this is the really tricky bit. Time trialists, or testers as we’re known because we test and not, definitely NOT, race, use this bizarre coding system that frankly could well be Enigma code.  I can’t explain them at all.  I know that there is the mythical ‘V’ which is actually V718.  This is also a 10TT but it happens to be arguably the fastest.  There are many TTs that start with V but only one V, or so I’m led to believe.  It was made especially famous when Sir Bradley Wiggins attempted t0 break the UK’s 10TT record on it only he didn’t because it was windy.

So now that’s out of the way I can push on with the short story.  In my attempt to rise to #1 in the North Midlands Time Trial league I have to enter at least 6 out of 14 events.  Today was my second.  I’m wondering if anyone has noticed the territorial land-grab that the North Midlands is making on Hemsworth.  Instead of simply driving to Hemsworth I opted to catch the train to Barnsley and ride the 10k or so to the headquarters, HQ to those in the know ;-).  The ticket office couldn’t believe I only wanted a one-way ticket and was planning to ride back to Sheffield after racing, I didn’t want to explain testing to her.  At the station I had my one and only photo check and a caffeine boost.

The ride to Hemsworth was uneventful but very cold.  Once at HQ I quickly signed-on, grabbed my number and deftly inserted it into the new NOPINZ pouch in my VeloViewer skinsuit.  This saved the usual asking around for someone to pin the number on to my skinsuit and invariably stabbing my backside with a safety pin.  I had just enough time to recce the full route which seemed advisable.

I had checked out the full route using Veloviewer and Google Streetview from this link http://veloviewer.com/routes/7973344 but there is no substitute for actually riding it.  I’m glad I did because it was useful to see that the lumps and bumps the VeloViewer profile shows are far from beningn and also there are a few tricky junctions.  I know of several riders who made a wrong turning an lost time.

Turning up at the start was a very friendly and chatty bunch of blokes all getting ready.  I spoke with Dave Carrick, rider 44, who was about to start on his first ever TT.  He picked a great day but a very testing course.  It immediately climbs up a pot-holled hill before heading down to the first of several roundabouts.  The going is continuously up or down for the entire length of the course making it difficult to get into any kind of rhythm.  I’ll not go into all the details of every pedal stroke because I’ll bore myself never mind anyone else reading.  Shortly before turning into the finishing road I could hear the thrumming sound of a powerfully ridden TT machine only to see my friend, rider 66 Keith Ainsworth, overtaking me.

I finished a long-way north of my 10TT PB of 21:32 with what seemed a dissapointing 23:37.  However, back at HQ I saw that it was actually a pretty good time.  I shouldn’t omit my misdemeanour at HQ.  There is a set of steps at the end of the car park just before the way-in.  I rode towards these on complete auto-pilot and then did my most Sven Nys like dismount only to unceremoniously fail to unclip my left foot and come crashing to the ground only inches from the top step.  My only thought was that my Skinsuit was ok and then wondered why the two Holmeforth CC riders weren’t rolling about in laughter.  Bless them, they were actually quite concerned.

Coffee and cake later and a peruse of the leaderboard I then got on the bike to head back through the newly expanded North Midlands to home.  A great day out with around 90k of cycling in the spring sun.  A big thank you to the various clubs that put the event on.  It was extremely well marshalled at all the critical junctions.  I know just how much work goes into running events like this and really appreciate the dedication of all the volunteers.

No formal results yet, just this link to a photo of the results board.