Today's weather forecast had been very iffy but when it came down to it, we had perfect weather. The previous day's head wind on the way back was still there but not as strongly.
My normal plan is to load the car up with everything I need and drive down to the start very early to get a good spot, then cycle back home on the road bike and somewhat later cycle back again and get onto the trainer. However this year the stomach bug I've been wrestling for the past 2 weeks reared it's ugly head again this morning and so I drove down much closer to my start time. Actually not only did I race on fresh air and water, I couldn't even manage to have any coffee so I also raced with a caffeine withdrawal headache!
So I warmed up initially on the road bike, then on the TT bike, although I was very despondent with how hard everything seemed on the TT bike...until I got off and realised the back tyre had punctured.......=language most foul!
Well what can you do?...change wheels and think positively...its a lighter wheel was my positive thought. I did a couple of quick efforts to make sure the gears were working and it was time for my bike to be inspected.
I was last starter in my group and all went well until the hill ( tops out briefly at 7%) which is when I discovered that actually all was not ok with my gears. Looking for an easier gear, everything went bellyup and I almost came to a standstill as I fished around for a gear, any gear that would work and that I could turn! Well I got up it, but with somewhat more pain in my legs and a higher heart rate than planned..however, when the going gets tough etc etc...and people who do TT's are tough types. What's more, I'd carted the TT bike around for weeks and I wasn't going to give up before it earned it's keep!
A much needed day of rest happens tomorrow which will include a bit of a ride, a drive out to Oberndorf to pick up my newly re-tyred wheel and ...groan...packing the TT bike........the weather forecast for my RR is currently diabolical, but we'll see..we all know how accurate they are.........not.
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