Bikes and bodies are funny things. I love to ride my bike – my body doesn’t seem to like me riding. After a flare up of a recurring injury after the last my last TT’s further tweaking of body and bike was required in order to keep me in working order and get some fitness back.

An early season club TT in April brought out some shiny new race wheels. A bit of poor prep on my part as in never having fitted them before the race to find out that they are considerably wider than my others led to me having to reset brakes and everything. This is my excuse for the worst 10 mile time I have ever set – the excuse list was as long as my arm that night. A 25:30 something is better not talked about, nor was the pain in my back and leg.

Skipping forward to 3rd May and running late as ever – I threw the bike in the car, got a friend to sign me on and abandoned the kids with the mother in law. Arriving with 10 mins to build bike, dress and warm up showed my level of preparation as I got to the start line with about 1 min to spare and a 3 minute sprint being warm up. Surprisingly the legs played ball and once warmed up I set a 24:22 – with a distinct negative split in the time. More than anything this got my head in the right space for knowing the legs and body were working.

Duckinfield 50 7/5/16– Position decidedly mid pack. A bright and warm afternoon with light to moderate wind was a nice change. A fifty is a little unknown territory for me as my previous attempts have led to either blowing completely or puncturing so anything resembling a good ride should end as a PB.

An easy start and trying not to push too hard on the first lap led to me setting a 24:32 and 24:10 for the first 2 ten mile splits – faster than 10 pace recently. A few tweaks I had made to position allowed me to hold the aero position comfortably (bar for bruising my elbows from hitting a couple of huge pot holes) and with a tail wind up one of the usually draggy sections was a cruise at 27mph.

I managed to pace fairly well with my legs giving up at 49 miles so lost a few seconds into the finish but was happy with a 2:07.40.