Three things happened this week that showed Mitch and are on the same page and a very tight two piece for the madness of “Summit Or Nothing Part 1” on Florence.
Firstly our TT outing this week, which was somewhat kind of strange. I felt we sucked for the first few miles and almost sacked off the run! I said nothing from the front seat of Flo and pushed on, my breathing was all over the place but I felt if we got over the first climb properly maybe we could pull the run back together. Well as I found out when we warmed down after our run, Mitch on the back seat explained without any knowledge of my feelings that he like me in his words wanted to “sack off the run” but held on in there to see how the climb went! We pulled ourselves together at exactly the same time in exactly the same way and posted a very decent time.
Then came a run up Cheddar Gorge on a training run latter in the week on our solo bikes. I pushed myself to get a quick run up the Gorge but we where out with a couple of the guys and I just pushed the first half on the front on my own, just when I needed someone to take the front and break the air for me Mitch comes by shouting “jump on”. I duly get a couple of centimetres off his back wheel and we steam off to the top of the Gorge, resulting in the quickest I have ever ascended it and more importantly with total trust in following Mitch very closely in front of me so as to grab the aero tow, we were totally in sync!
Lastly comes the most important of our unity. Abi (Mitchell’s partner) finished her long road of treatment for Cancer and got to ring the bell in the BRI’s Cancer Unit to signify this. I told Mitch that I was fine with all the social media pictures of this and was obviously elated by them! But that the video of her ringing the bell just hit me and got me in a rather emotional state LOL his reply was to agree and say that his reactions mirrored mine to this.
So to summarise = One Love, Unity, On It, So Tight As A Pair!!!
So with the band together and in full rehearsal I have to step away and become dare I say kind of selfish. You see I can’t make the others train, I can’t help them with their health problems, though it troubles me and obviously I care hugely about how they are dealing with them! I have to ensure that I get my 56 year old frame back, into some sort of shape and that I don’t let the others down plus add to that I am on the same bicycle as my 23 year old Son for “Summit Or Nothing Part 1”.
Well to find out just where my body and Mitchell’s is at this stage Mitch and I headed to Chew Valley for the opening round of the Bristol South Cycling Club 8.5 Mile TT. This is a tough little TT course that has a sharp climb and long uphill drag on a heavy road hence its 8.5 mile not the standard 10 mile TT.
As I nervously sat in the front seat of Florence and the starter counted us down it suddenly dawned on me that if we sucked in this event our challenge on Flo would be in jeopardy, fact! Even though this is a flat out sprint event it would test the three of us to our limits and find out how far we have come through the winter months as TT events are know as the “race of truth” for good reason.
“3,2,1 GO” shouts the starter and we are away smoothly, quickly and are pushing the start gear properly even though we have gone away for the first time in the big ring on the front. Mitch shouts for me to drop a ring on the back I shift Flo and again we spin the gear very quickly and the speed builds.
Mitch then shouts for me to “dump the block” which means for me to shift over two or three gears in one go and hit top gear! I do this, Flo shifts beautifully, we push the gear with no problem and now we are really moving! The worry now is will we have gone to hard to soon and blow up! I feel great my breathing is hard but regulated and my legs are pushing evenly with Mitch as I can’t feel him pushing through my feet.
To my amazement and slight embarrassment we catch our minute man in under a quarter of the course. As we pass the young female solo rider I have to shout, “on your right” to warn we are coming through as the road hits a bit of a pinch point. This is also the next shift point as the course is climbing and we are losing cadence. I come up only one ring and we can run the gear again.
Quickly the course falls then turns sharp left and up the one big sharp climb, the plan is I drop the front ring carefully so as not to have the drive chain come off, make the turn and smash it up the hill. Simple…….well no you see Florence has down tube shifters that don’t index each gear. I have to feel when they are in and she will only shift the front rings when the power is knocked off! So we start to free wheel into the corner I shift the front mec we glass pedal and……. nothing happens!! I look back to the chain rings under Mitchell’s feet and then Mitch screams break, break, clip the speed off! It’s truly terrifying on the back he has no brakes just a blank set of drop handle bars all the controls are down to me. I snap back into reality and hit the brakes which are very old school and poor, but the speed comes off. I make the turn perfectly and hear plus feel a click, the chain has shifted and we are hard on the pedals up the climb.
My reaction is relief and pride in the Old Girl and I quickly tell her “well done” before my lungs and legs start screaming in pain, as we hit the 3/4 point of the climb. I start encouraging Mitch as we crest the climb and I know it’s the best we have ever climbed it! Then down we go Flo goes back into the big ring after a little protest but allows me to dump the block perfectly.
The next section is fast and flat and all feels good, then all to quickly we are onto what for us is the toughest part of the course! You see unlike the other modern tandems in the event and the custom made solo TT bikes we aren’t aerodynamic in any way really other than getting as low as we can in the drops and when you consider its 80% of your pedal effort just to push the bike and rider through the air we really are at a huge disadvantage, on a long steady slight uphill gradient.
We are both now breathing and working really hard but recover very well on the next decent. We pass through a small village and turn left onto the main road for a short sharp climb, then a lovely flat out drop down onto the Lakes. All is going well until I make the turn onto the main road. Mitch shouts “it’s clear” from the rear seat as he can see way up the road from there. I make the turn and a car is parked on the other side of the road, which is fine except the driver starts it and reverses without looking across the road and right at us!! I shout and brake like mad, we very nearly hit a wall and come to a stop!! The idiot driver then pulls away and turns off the main road!!!
We are furious my heart sinks as our lap time is dying there and then, we have no forward momentum to get us up and over the next kick in the road but we quickly get our heads together and push on in silence just our heavy breathing as a sound track. The next call I get from the back is “2 minute man” at first due to me thinking all is lost I think that our minute man is coming up on us for a pass, but I look ahead down the road to see a solo TT bike in the distance and we are making good ground on it! Mitch normally would tell me to stay calm and not chase it, as we could blow up and they may have paced to sprint in but there is nothing from my stoker other than Power! We power past the solo rider a minute or so later and empty the tanks to cross the line!
I stop my race computer as we cross the line and we slowly warm down with a gentle spin up the road a little, then return to the start area. I feel totally shot but pleased with the way I felt we had raced. Mitch is gutted about the car and thinks it’s ruined our run. One of the other Tandem crews come over, who we are very close to most weeks in terms of times and tell us they have set a PB at 20.30 mins and have knocked off 30 seconds from their previous best time! I look down for the first time at my computer whilst explaining our altercation with the car, I can’t believe it we have a time of 20.08 mins!! We have smashed it!! There is no doubt we would have dipped under 20 mins without the dam car but it doesn’t matter as you see Flo, Mitch and I are on it, so dam on it!!
I can now say with confidence that the blood sweat and tears of the winter months are paying off!!!
Well well would you believe it those two twits have asked if I would carry them up mountains in the Alps now!!
They must be joking I am 33 years Old in Human years so that’s like well …… really old in Tandem years!! I have refused out right to go down hill and have laid down the law that they put my triplet chain rings back on so as they don’t break my cranks!!
Apparently it’s all going to done to support the “Teenage Cancer Trust” so that’s why I agreed to do it.
The pair of them also have plans to make me faster for time trialling again this year, I don’t have a problem with this as I enjoy showing up those modern Aero you pup Tandems!!
Apparently my 8 speed Italian Campagnolo gears no longer exist so Nick is going to build a new rear cassette from the newer (20 year old) 9 speed system. This should go some way to adding to my down hill and flat speed as those two twits Mitch and Nick kept spinning out!! This should work as long as Nick finally works out that changing my gears needs to be done gently or I’ll throw my chain off in protest for no apparent reason as I know this leaves him flabbergasted LOL
The last time we all raced together Mitch and Nick got really nervous at the start of their first open TT , so just for a laugh I dropped my gear chain which I have never done before!! It was so funny they really got in a tiz, then got really angry, which worked as they pushed my pedals so hard it got the three of us on the podium. I have done faster times back in the day with my original crew on-board of course but don’t let those two know that!!
Its three weeks until my wheels return to the local TT course on a Wednesday night so those two better be training hard or I might just get a puncture as far away as I can from the start LOL!!
Take care humans give me a wave if you see me out training trying to get those two idiots to go faster!!
