20:52! Yes, I know, I can barely believe it myself!

  I'd like to pretend that this was a bit of a fluke but....

  ....I'd invested quite a lot into this ride. Proper dedicated training, expensive new equipment, crash dieting, even an extra day off work over Easter so that I didn't get all stressed and panicky like last time.

  I knew I was going really well - my power was a bit better than when I last rode this course last year. I knew that if I could get close to or just slightly under 22 mins on my last club 10 a couple of days before, I knew sub 21 mins was on. I did 22:04 on a windy evening in North Norfolk. Close enough I reckoned and worth the long trip.

  Sue came along this time and we had a nice easy trip up to York the day before and spent the day wandering and shopping (and wondering whether some scumbag had broken into the car and stolen my bike yet!).

  Later that afternoon, we drove down to a cheapy Travelodge at South Cave, right beside the A63, literally a mile from the V718 and spent the night there, after visiting the Chinese in Newport and stuffing our faces with the most obscenely huge take-away.  Didn't sleep much, a result of the most uncomfortable mattress ever made, a very noisy fan in the bathroom and strange noises which we initially assumed was a film crew making a porno next door but turned out to be noisy central heating...

Yeah, right!!!

  Up nice and early, couple of cups of strong coffee, couple of bananas and ready to face the world.  A quick equipment check revealed near disaster - my heavily modified aero helmet had been slightly squashed in the back of Sue's little Ford Ka and had bits hanging off!! Bugger!!  Gaffer tape to the rescue - tada!
 Ok, looked bloody awful but it worked. If there was a photographer there I'd just have to photoshop the tape out of the picture later....

No-one would ever know.....

  I don’t really enjoy big crowds with all that bustle and chatter so I decided that, rather than setting up at the HQ and warming up there, I’d do it in the Travelodge car park. It made more sense too, I mean, it’s a good 4 mile ride from the HQ to the start which takes you right past the Travelodge anyway which is only about a mile from the start. So less time to puncture or have anything else go wrong too.  I whizzed up to Newport first thing as soon as the HQ opened at 07:30 to sign on and get my number, then came straight back & faffed about with the bike for a while before setting up the turbo and getting cracking.

  It felt a bit naughty but I was soon joined by a couple of other riders who had stayed overnight too and I felt much more at ease. One bloke had come from Bristol especially for the event, and the other lady rider had come up from Devon! Blimey, those made our piddly little trip of 180 miles from Norfolk seem almost local. Such is the draw of the Mighty V718 I suppose!

  Felt really good on the turbo and had a nervous 30 mins working up a good sweat in the chilly northerly wind before releasing Trigger II and stripping off, ready to go.

  Cold and windy. I certainly didn’t want to be getting to the start too early on a morning like this.

  “Good luck,” said Sue with a kiss and a hug.

  “If I’m not back in 21 mins,” I joked, “I’ll have either punctured or been run over by a truck.”

  Not surprisingly, Sue didn’t find it funny. Another one for the drawer marked ‘Inappropriate’ methinks!  Ooops.

  Got to the start with 3 mins to go which was almost perfect. Just had time to recheck the gaffer tape on my helmet and get the crud from under my cleats before rolling up to the start line.

  Blimey. This is it. Eeek!!

A Northerly isn't the best wind direction for this course - anything with a bit of East in it normally makes it super quick because the last mile or so is very exposed plus you get a nice push up the 'Welton Drag'!

 Rather than just tearing off from the start and hoping for the best, I’d ridden this course enough times now to get to know it slightly better.  Ok, it’s fast but there are a couple draggy climbs that can catch you out during the last couple of miles, one of them being the run in to the finish line.  Today with a crosswind and perhaps a potential headwind, saving plenty to be able to attack those would be crucial to not losing too much time. You hit what I think they call the ‘Welton Drag’ which is quite exposed, then you crest the hill by a long layby and get about 15-20 seconds high speed respite downhill until hitting the gentle drag up to the finish. I wanted to arrive there with a few percent left in the tank this time.

  “Half a minute….”

  The mantra started in my head – “Go as fast as you can… but no faster….”

  “5-4-3-2-1-GO!”

  Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh went the disc wheel and within no distance I was up to 35mph downhill on to the sliproad. For some reason, getting down onto the bars felt a bit like raising the gear & flaps on an aeroplane after take-off – it made me smile.

  Hmmm, a definite crosswind but, f**k me, the dual-carriageway is busy…

  Clonk, clatter… then a ‘ching’ off the side of my helmet. What the hell….

  My first thought was a big stone and the inevitable puncture but nothing. Hold on, the computer is stuck at 1.1 miles and zero miles per hour.  Aha – the magnet must have flown off the front wheel!  Too fast and too much centrifugal force! I took that as a good sign although losing the computer was a bit of a bummer. Plan B became, 56 x 12 = "very fast", 56 x 13 = "fast enough", 56 x 14 = "too slow”

  “Fast enough” with the occasional “Very fast” to the turn, concentrating really hard on holding my effort down which isn’t easy when you feel really good.  The turn in 9:30 odd but I remembered that it’s only about 4.5 miles on the way out. I tried to extrapolate the time to 5 miles but gave up – more important things to worry about.

 Around the second roundabout and back down onto the A63. My heart sank – I could feel that there was a major headwind component to the wind immediately and it was 5.5 miles to the finish. My optimism began to fade a bit, imagining groveling up the Welton Drag at 20mph again. But back amongst the trees on the dual carriageway I was still managing “Fast enough”, in fact my minute man was coming back towards me quite quickly which encouraged me no end. I still refused to panic and overcook it, concentrating instead on staying smooth, flat and as aero as possible on the bike.

  As I was overtaking the other rider, some twat in a car decided to try and squeeze between a lorry in the outside lane and us in the inside lane and frightened the life out of me. However, he came so close that the huge suck it gave me up the road (and big surge of adrenaline!!) allowed me to engage “Very fast” for a while and I arrived at the foot of Mount Welton with a fair bit of momentum.

 Time for that late kick now I decided and spanked the top gear for as long as I could before “Fast enough” and then finally “Too slow” were required in the wind. Another self-destructive spurt over the top saw my heart rate hit 175 (hasn’t done that for a while!) and then a brief downhill blast spinning like a maniac before the final assault on the finish line. After the big effort, I was totally smashed but could see the chequered flag ahead. Quick check of the watch…  21:15. WHAT THE F***!!??

  Hold on, you started it when your minute man started, you bloody idiot!  Blimey, that’s 20:18 then... 20:19… 20:20…  You are joking…  I’m going to do it…  you have GOT to be joking!  Bloody hell, going to be close though, get a move on fatty, come on… Arrgghh! No!!  Legs have got nothing left…Aaaaarrghhhhh…

  Pedalling like Mr Bean having a seizure, I crossed the line.  21 mins still on the watch…  Blimey, that’s a 20… 20:53 in fact!

   AAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHHH…..YEEEESSSS…..AAAARRRGGGHHHHHHH……….

  As promised, I gave Sue a big wave and big thumbs up as I cruised past the Travelodge half a mile or so later and I saw her standing in the upstairs window waving back. Some more waving and air punching made it perfectly clear I think that I’d achieved the sub 21 and after a quick trip up to the junction and short ride back down the other side of the dual carriageway, I was able to tell her myself.

  Lots of jangly, excited chat and hasty repacking of the bike and gear back into the car then back up to the room for a silly photo (below) and a nice hot bath.

  A couple of nice surprises back at the HQ in Newport. Firstly, I won an Easter egg in the raffle and, second, I’d actually gone a whole second quicker than I thought. 20:52 my official time. Get in!!!

    I wish it had been a perfect day to be honest.  I always thought that sub 21 would be it and I could hang up my carbon wheels, let my legs grow hairy, grow a beard and join the CTC or something. But that’s not going to happen because now I’m left with the tantalizing thought that I know I can go just a bit quicker. How annoying is that??!!  Then again I suppose that’s the brilliant / awful thing about this ridiculous hobby, isn’t it?