St Ives CC Open 10 TT N1/10, 29 June 2019

After Wednesday night’s club 10 on the same course, the contrast couldn’t be any more stark. The weather on Wednesday: chilly 14C and a 16mph wind from the NE. For Saturday afternoon, baking 31C with a brisk SE wind! I did my ‘warmup’ on the road to stay as cool as possible, making sure I’d had plenty to drink. I tried to save some energy on the out leg of the course, knowing that some exposed sections of the road would be tough on the way back. This didn’t really work out as planned, meaning that my average power was yet again well down on what I would expect, but with heart rate and perceived effort very high due to the heat, was probably the best I could do. I hung on and tried to stay strong on the tough parts of the return leg, being rewarded with a PB for the course at 22.01 and another top 10 finish.

Tim Phillips