RESULT: Chippenham Whs 25

George · Post by **George** » 30 Jun 2013 12:25

Winner: Ben Anstie 51:22
Beacon: George Barker: 1:03:34

F*%*ing disaster! Thought I had a bit of form (by my own standards), but was clearly kidding myself. Down on schedule right from the off, then locked up with cramp 2 miles from the finish and had to freewheel half of the last bit, turning a poor time into an awful one. Nearly 5 minutes down on my last 25, on the same course, about 4 years ago. Clearly I have a lot to do. And I'm going to start by drinking beer.

Ed Moss · Post by **Ed Moss** » 30 Jun 2013 14:10

At least you tried...

laurence_cooley · Post by **laurence_cooley** » 30 Jun 2013 22:28

Still sounds quite quick to me, George.

Grogz · Post by **Grogz** » 01 Jul 2013 06:47

Good effort, George. Enjoy the beer!

George · Post by **George** » 01 Jul 2013 08:28

Thanks for the commiserations. It was a pi!ss poor effort, actually, Greg. I don't expect to match the likes of Chris, let alone the likes of Ed, but I should be going under the hour.

I think I know what changes I need to make to my preparation (although it's a bit late, since I only planned to spend a month or so doing short TTs). But the result has left me questioning some positional changes I made for this season. Riding my TT bike has always given me a crick in the neck (I'm a bit deformed), so I raised the bars about an inch. And, after comparing photos of myself with photos of the pros, I decided that I was nowhere near as far over the bottom bracket as the top people, so I shifted myself forward. It all feels good, but now I'm wondering whether it was a mistake. I don't believe for a moment that the changes could possibly have cost me 5 minutes, but did they cost me, say, 10% of those lost 5 minutes? Or were they in fact the right thing to do ... would I have been even slower without them? Suddenly I'm full of doubt and wishing I had a wind tunnel in the garage.

Ed Moss · Post by **Ed Moss** » 01 Jul 2013 08:46

It may take your body time to adapt, try on a couple of training rides and see if you are still lacking a bit of power, it could be, without seeing pics that your old position was nor far off, you could try just 1/2 inch with the bars.

If you area bit comfier then you could just have had a bad day...