Burford 10 TT

Last night I did my first time trial, the Burford 10 organised by the Oxonian CC. I was surrounded by slightly odd people in full skin suits, pointy helmets and disc wheels in a lay-by in Oxfordshire and I wasn’t looking forward to what I was expecting to be the most boring 20-odd minutes of my life. I had not real bench mark, no target to catch in front of me and no expectation of avoiding being caught by the riders setting off behind me. The strangest thing I found with the whole event was at the start when a bloke holds your bike upright and you stand on the pedals ready to go. It was an odd sensation and I was just expecting to fall over as soon as he let go! Fortunately, I avoided the embarrassment of falling off and set off down the hill. The course was reasonably flat, just 5 miles slightly down hill to a roundabout then 5 miles back up to the finish. As I had no real idea of how far 5 miles was I just stayed as tucked as possible and tried to keep a smooth rhythm – I didn’t want to die half way back! Apart from a slight twinge in my left hamstring I was comfortable and not out of breath at all. I got caught by my 2 and 1 minute men at the same time pretty much at the turn so I decided I wasn’t trying hard enough and increased the speed to match them. I re-passed one of these young boys for a while but he eventually passed me and pulled away until the elastic had pretty much snapped. He did get away but towards the end I felt like I was reeling him back in.


I did a time of 25:56 which I am told is a respectable time for a first attempt on a road bike with mountain bike shoes and leg hair so I am pretty happy. I was well down the field but I am not too concerned by that since just about everyone there was a regular in full TT kit! I know I said I thought it would be a hateful experience but once I was on the return leg and pushing, knowing it wasn’t much further, I actually quite enjoyed it. I think it will be a good way to measure my progress in the future so I will probably try to do a few more over the summer. There seems to be quite a few Wednesday evening meetings within about 10 miles of my house and it seems like a good, inexpensive method of competing and pushing myself.