10 minutes (and more) of hell

For anyone who didn't ride the Mersey tunnel time trial yesterday, you really missed out!! Glorious sunshine, closed roads and a lively atmosphere and there was quite a crowd. I would liken it to an early Monsal hill climb in terms if the number of people that we there. Not to mention the huge prize list...

Three of the Maxgearettes had entered, myself, Mel and Frankie. I had borrowed a time trial bike from my good friend George Rose - a beautiful black Hinde complete with Zipp disc! A big thank you to him! As well as the awesome new Champion System/Maxgear/Kyklos speedsuit, Limar had supported us with a couple of speed demon aero helmets for the event. We really looked the part!

As we warmed up in the sun, Mel was showing me the various tricks she can do on the rollers including dismounting whist on the bike (don't try that one in the kitchen!) and Frankie made good use of the turbos provided by Vita Cycles for warm up by the speakers to get in the zone'.

After an hard warm up, really important for such a short race, it was time to head off to the start line! I felt more nervous than I usually do for road races - in a time trial there's nowhere to hide. With a growl from the starters and a shove, I was off.

I usually find time trials a little dull, but this one was anything but. On the decent under the tunnel the speed really picked up and what had been a sweeping corner at 30mph in the car had to be leant into. It was really disorientating and I could hear the noise of the disk echoing off the tunnel walls. This was followed by a Climb back up to the top. I cant even tell you now what sort of gradient it was, I really couldn't tell. It looked really steep but could be big ringed fairly easily.

I turned in the road at the top and started the decent back under the river. By the time I reached the bottom I was already willing to see daylight. My feet had gone numb with the cold down in the tunnel and it was really hurting. As I got to the exit I got out of the saddle for the last push.

What turned out to be twelve minutes - and 4th place - most certainly hurt, but I don't think you'll find a more exhilarating time trial easily... I will be entering again faster and stronger next year.

Thanks to Vita Cycles for putting on a great event and to Ian and Alex who were on photo/tweeting/support duties.