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2010 British Time Trial Championships

Posted September 6, 2010

Sarah Storey shares her experience in the National Time Trial Championships:  Held in south-west Wales around the town of Llandeilo and out towards Carmarthen, the 2010 edition of the British Time Trial Championships attracted some big names and was an exciting event to race.

Less than two weeks after coming home from the Paracycling Road World Championships, I knew I was pushing my luck to expect the form to have held, especially as the training since the Worlds has largely focused on big gear efforts on the track. Always up for a race though, I did my usual thorough race preparation, arriving in the area with three full days to spend checking out the circuit.

We had a fast start along the rolling A40 in a westerly direction before a fast left hander, over the River Towy and then a more tricky left turn which went straight uphill. Gearing here was crucial and an out of the saddle acceleration took you over the top and back along another rolling section back towards Ffairfach and another left turn to climb into the town of Llandeilo.

This was a gut wrenching hill, which I tackled out of the saddle for the first time in a major event and then a sharp left took us up further before winding through a one way section and out to turn left at the top of the climb. After battling to lift the speed going over the top, the road dropped away and past the HQ to rejoin the A40 just prior to where we had started. After completing another three quarters of a lap, we took a left off the back straight and finished down a little lane, some 6km away from the HQ. It felt like a long ride back to the car after the race!

With the completion of the Masters and Juniors during the morning session, it was the turn of the women, espoirs and men during the afternoon and as rain clouds passed over, the wind picked up and the ride was certainly a tough one.

For me, the warm up went well and I felt really strong, but I think I was being overly optimistic and as soon as I started I knew my legs just weren't going to settle into my usual solid rhythm. It was so frustrating, but with my longest ride in the last three weeks being a two hour and 50 minute ride after landing back at home last week, I knew I was suffering from a lack of quality training and the big gears of the track were not something my body had yet adapted to well.

At the first time check, I was down on Emma Trott by about seven seconds, but this gap continued to extend and I finished 48 seconds down on Emma, who went on to win the Espoirs category. Jamie Pringle gave me another time check about 6 km later and then by the time I got to Barney who was about two thirds of the way round the first lap, he was able to give me a check on all the riders as my Dad had relayed the info across from the first point! It was a very clever system and I knew the heavy feeling in my legs was being confirmed as I was being told I was down on my rivals.

By the time I crossed the finish line, with a low average power of just 288 watts, for my 46m 48s effort, my support crew knew I wouldn't finish higher than 6th and I trundled back to the HQ to be informed I was being notified of dope control and to have the result confirmed. For me it was just one race too far and finishing 2m 20s down on the superb Emma Pooley and 2 minutes down on the fast finishing and my season long rival, Julia Shaw, I knew I could have done better if I'd been able to get out my usual high power.

Still, with every result that doesn't go the way you would have liked, there are plenty of things to take on board and it's always hard to dovetail the end of a road season into the start of a track season. I tried out a new technique for climbing and I know there's the need to refine that technique to become even more efficient.

With almost four weeks until the end of the season this year and the Individual Pursuit at Commonwealth Games, there's time to put some solid work in on the track and road and really capitalise on the form I enjoyed during the main part of road season. This coming week, I'm excited to do some Team Pursuiting with my Horizon Fitness team mates, ahead of the track nationals and also put in some more individual training for the Individual Pursuit event. Next weekend I head out to the Chrono Time Trial in Reims, France to test myself against some more of the Worlds best testers and also to provide my training with a high intensity race effort over the longer distance.

It's an exciting time, especially to get selected for Team England and I'm looking forward to trying to finish the season off on a high. Until next weekend :-)

Sarah x  (www.onthedrops.com)