Barholm 5 Mile TT

During early 2021 I’d decided to write up my 2005 LEJOG ride and through remembering bits of that ride I’d found myself again watching Michael Broadwith’s record breaking attempt on the classic British End to End route. Damon Peacock made an excellent video of Michael’s attempt and as Damon makes great videos, and as Michael is an engaging guy, I veered into watching some of Damon’s Mersey Roads 24hr TT videos. This is what has led me to line up on a TT start line.

Registering Interest

A colleague at work who I’d been riding a lot with on Zwift was a member of Bourne Wheelers and had indicated that time trials would begin in Spring time frame. We’d had some chatter on a WhatsApp group and the details of the first “come and try” event had been shared. It would be a 5 Mile Time Trial, out and back from Barholm.

As I am not a BW club member I emailed the club organiser to see if I could have one of the 30 places allocated, and a very quick response from Julia confirmed that I would be on the start line after paying my entry fee of £1. Excellent.

Reconnaissance

All paid up, I now had a few days to think about the short event. How would I pace it? Is it hilly? What would the wind be like? Are there any tricky sections? So, to answer a couple of these questions we took a family bike ride and ended up riding the “out” leg of the TT. From this I noticed some undulation, but nothing steep and I also noted that it’s longer than you think. I guess as it is “only 5 miles” there is a thought that you can just go absolutely full gas for the entire time, but this little recce maybe suggested otherwise?

The day before the event I was on holiday from work and took the opportunity to ride out to the course and have a ride up and down the full 5 miles. I gave it some gas in this recce but not an all out effort, as I wanted to save myself for the main event the following day. It was good to ride the full course on the bike that I would be using (my Kalavinka), and I put a time on the Strava segment that I could use as a marker: BW Barholm 5TT – 13:43mins, 36Kmh (22.3mph), 308W.

On the Day

As I was on holiday from work and my wife was working, me and the kids went and saw an old friend and did a little walking.

After that I made sure my bike was nice and clean, with everything functioning well. Lights charged up and then it was time to make a start on dinner… and this is when I began to feel the nerves a little. just some butterflies in the stomach. I actually had a liquid food, as I didn’t have time to make dinner and eat it so that it would settle before the event.

As soon as my wife got home I got kitted up and was ready to roll within 10 minutes. I set off on the way out to the TT which would give me a 35 minute warm up.

Along the way, I realised I’d forgotten to bring a pen and some safety pins, and momentarily I considered going back to fetch them, but as that would make me late I just carried on, reasoning that maybe there would be a pen for signing on and some safety pins for my number that I would be able to use. I also got a small insect in my right eye, but the 5 minutes or so that I was stopped at Greatford rail crossing allowed me time to dig it out. It also allowed me time to have a word with myself and just calm the nerves a little.

Signing On

Shortly after the train crossing opened I was at the sign on location. I quickly recognised my work colleague and his daughter and made my way over to say hi. It was nice to know someone there at least. I signed on (they had a pen) and fetched my number which I was able to pin on with some borrowed pins. My number was 24, which I rather liked given my interest in the Mersey Roads 24.

Once I’d pinned my number on it was a case of hanging around for my start time (18:54 – 24 minutes after 18:30). I chatted with my colleague and his daughter, and some others that were also around us. The sign on location was a small field with people’s cars parked around the edges. I enjoyed watching people get ready and there were some absolute weapon level bikes being prepped too…

I had no water bottles with me, I reasoned that the weight of a bottle wasn’t necessary but I did have my rain jacket on, a snood and some gloves as it was pretty chilly. My plan was to lose the jacket for the TT by folding it up and tucking it down the front of my jersey.

Toileting seemed to be required for many, including me so with that taken care of it was time to do some kind of on road warm up. I just pedalled up and down a piece of road close to the start, but there were some who were practising starts and holding positions.

Once I’d done a few rides up and down the roads it seemed the right time to start lining up, I got talking to No.22 who had a serious machine, which looked like it had done many a TT. There were also some younger riders in full Bourne Wheelers Skin suits on weapon bikes too. I was the only person on a steel bike!

Moving to the start line it was time to make sure my rear light was on and to remove my rain jacket and get it tucked down my front. As I was faffing about with this it was interesting to watch people getting counted down for the off, and then to see how hard they set off. There was a mix of steady and very hard off the line ahead of me, but push offs were not allowed, likely due to Covid somehow.

TT

I was counted down by my colleagues wife, who was volunteering with the event. We had a bit of small talk and then she said 30 seconds… then 15… then 10… I started my Garmin just after 10 then concentrated on the road ahead.

GO!!… I got clipped in to my left pedal successfully and quickly got myself up to speed and onto the aero bars.

Within a very short amount of time I was thinking this was very high effort, and when I went to turn on the taps to increase speed or get over a small rise in the road my legs hurt and there weren’t the reserves there which I had felt the night before on the recce. This was likely due to the high effort I was already putting in. I only had Speed and Power displayed on my Garmin and snatching glimpses of the unit showed I was tickling 40Kmh and >300Watts. I’d try and keep that going.

Approaching the turnaround point I saw my colleague heading up the return leg and I gave him a shout of encouragement. I was breathing rhythmically but very heavily, just trying to keep what felt like a reasonable cadence and to keep my speed as high as possible.

The wind was a little unhelpful for the entire out leg, and the benefit felt limited for the return leg too. I felt my legs just start to fade with a little over 1Km to go as I crossed the rail bridge, and had to push hard to keep my speed up near 40Kmh beyond the bridge. However, quicker than anticipated I clocked the finish line and ploughed on as hard as I could towards it.

Crossing the finish line I shouted out my number “24”, and with that the effort was over. I sat up on the hoods and tried to collect my breathing. The effort I’d put out had spiked my throat and it felt sore. I was sort of regretting not having a drink to sip at this point. I got back to the sign on location and there were a few riders left packing up, but as I was a high number there were many that had gone before me and already left.

I chatted with my colleague and his daughter about how we thought we had gone, and Richard said he would share the results with me later that evening (as I was not on FB to see the results posted). All that was needed then was to remove my number and hand it back in to the organisers. Once done, we all headed off in our own directions.

Results

12:33 was my time.
Average speed was 24.3mph.
I placed 8th overall in a field of 30 (1 DNS).
2nd fastest on a standard road bike.
Only one on a steel bike.

I was very pleased with that result, and my interest in TTs had been firmed. Now I was thinking about another…