Last week I managed another course PB, this time on the Cwm Rheidol route. The wind was a bit swirly and most were reporting times of around 30 seconds down on their Llety Gwyn times from the previous week. I was no different and posted a 25:56.
The following evening was my first chaingang of the year. Having met the gang in Bow St. I joined the main group heading off first. I was amongst plenty of good 23-24 minute men (10 mile TT times) and knew it would be hard going.
Initially the downhill section was a bit sketchy with some members of the group not able to maintain smooth speed transitions. This wasn’t helped by one rider having left his TT bars on (and actually using them in the chaingang!). I heard some strong words to the rider in question later on about this. Once on the flat, things evened out and we soon dropped a rider goign through Borth high street. We lost another at Ynyslas and another at Taliesin. Once back on the main road I was taking a turn on the front and when I flicked my elbow and glanced around to see not one of our group but Team UK Youth’s Gruff Lewis followed by Team Wallis CHH’s Dan Davis. They powered through and took a couple of our group with them. I fell off the back at this point when I should have tried to chase back on one more time but I ended up soloing my way to the finish line but kept James Purkiss in sight until the line. 23.5MPH average for the lap. Pretty good going really.
The following day I awoke to a sore throat which signaled the beginning of a week long cold which is only just leaving me now. No training and plenty of weight put back on. Not great but could be a lot worse.