National Closed Road Time Trial Championship 2020. On Saturday the 10th of October 2020 (last week), my dad and I went to ‘Premier Inn’ at Thruxton in Hampshire for the race the next day.
We went with Jack (10yrs) and Edith (13yrs), all of us are members of Suffolk Youth Race Team (SYRT). We had dinner together that night and then went to bed. The hotel let us down a bit with breakfast, so we had to find some in another place.
In the morning, we woke up and packed our things away. I got ready in my kit, then we packed the car and checked out of the hotel. We then went to McDonald’s and bought pancakes, but didn’t eat them in the end as we didn’t really like them, so I had a banana instead. When we got to the race, I signed on and got my numbers and timing chip and took them back to the car.
Edith, jack and I rode around a bit to keep warm and at 8:00, we did a few laps of the course together to practice our lines and position.
With about 30 minutes to the race, I got on the rollers and did a few minutes on there. I finished my drink, got back on the rollers and did a few harder bursts. With about 10 minutes to go to my start, I went over and started riding around the square warm up area near the start line.
At the start line, I had to think about my gears and where my pedal was in order to get a fast start. Although I was ready, I still had quite a bad start, only getting clipped in at the end of the pit lane.
I was on the tri-bars as soon as i could have and about 1 minute into the race, I went around a corner and someone came past me on the inside of the track, but there was not much space, maybe 40 cms, so it was very close. They made me lose control of the bike whilst I was on the tri-bars, and I almost fell off. I recovered and settled back into the race without losing too much time.
There is a hill on the course near the end of the lap. After a few laps riding the hill seated, I decided to test out which one was faster, “out of the saddle” or “on the tri-bars seated” for the hill. I figured out that I was much faster out of the saddle when going up the hill and still recovered in time to push onto the finish straight.
I forgot my inhaler before the race, so I was struggling a bit with my breathing for the whole race, but at the end of the race I gave all my remaining energy away by giving a sprint to the finish line. I was so tired and out of energy when I finished, that after I signed out, I could barely stand and had to sit on the ground whilst we were talking to team mates.
I was quite happy with my result and I came 1st (I was the only one in my category 
). Although I did beat a 13,14 and 15 year old which I think is quite good.
It was great fun and I’m glad I could race there this year. Well done to everyone who raced.It was about 4 hours to get home, so I was quite tired when we arrived to see my mum and our dog.
Thank you again to Angus for lending me his disc wheel. I looked after it very well and It made me feel very fast.
Thank you to Stonham Barns for their support this year (Alan and Terri Forward, Keith etc), you make a big difference, especially for the opportunities you make available to me.. Its never forgotten.
