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This morning I set off from home at 06.38 to ride out to Gt. Missenden to take part in the 50tt designated as the club 50 championship.  The air was still and a little cool, but I quickly warmed up.  I was also expecting to see Gurpal, Simon Greenland and Joe Francis.  On inspecting the start sheets Linda Regal had also entered.  Todays event actually encompassed two different races, the national VTTA (Veterans TimeTrial Association) 50tt and a West London Combined 50tt. Simon, Gurpal and Linda had all entered the VTTA race as they were over 40.  I should have also entered this event, but didn’t fancy the 7am listed start time, so optioned for the WLC event listed to start at 9am.  The sign-on sheet showed Linda stayed in bed and it looked like Joe was not starting as well.

The event is nearly 3 laps of the A314 between Amersham and Wendover.  I started at 8.14, wondering where Simon and Gurpal were on the course.  By now the wind was slowly picking up, so the 1^st 5 miles out to the turn at the far end of the Wendover by pass was relatively brisk.  About ½ mile before the turn, I crossed the path of Gurpal and about 4mins later while heading down toward Amersham I saw Simon going the other way.  I past Gurpal before getting to Gt. Missenden.  However, at the Amersham end turn it looked like Simon was closing the gap on me.  This gap was down to about ½ mile as I made my 2^nd turn at the Wendover end of the course.  Simon only had about 5 miles to complete his race compared to the 20ish miles I still needed to complete, so I was fairly confident he wouldn’t catch me.  This was the low point of the race for me, as I felt assuming, Simon finished he would be quicker than me and the club 50tt champion.  My spirits lifted after passing Gt. Missenden to find I was slowly catching a couple of riders who had started shortly before me.  On my 3^rd leg back to Wendover the wind had picked up as my speed was significantly higher despite a lower power output.  The down side would be the last 5miles into an increasingly strong wind which was also made worse by a local heavy rain shower. 

As I crossed the finish line my time looked like 2hr 4min 55sec, which was an improvement from about 3 weeks earlier on the same course.  

Back at the hall Simon and Gurpal were looking refreshed.  Simon was looking happy with his time of 2hr 0 min 55 sec (time corrected 20/7/2010 12.04).  Gurpal completed the course much quicker than a few weeks ago in 2hr 33min xx sec, but failed to do a PB.  So this makes Simon the 2010 50tt championship.  Now the VTTA event Simon entered was his main target for this year.  VTTA events use an age related handicap system to measure performance.  This system in theory allows a 40 year old to compare their performance with someone in their 80’s. Based on this system Simon’s performance was 34min 37sec quicker than the expected standard times.  As the results were finalised, Simon was declared the National 50tt Champion of the 50-59 age category. 

Well done Simon in being a National Champion.  Next time were all down the pub the beers will be on him.