A distinctly average start

Last weekend saw the first hill climb of the season. Run by Buxton CC, the climb was a shortened (stupid roadworks) version of Long Hill, normally 7.1km @ 3.6% to 5km @ 3.2%. Needless to say, this was not a hill climb that suited me.

The start list was full of big names - 3x National HC Champion Dan Evans and his wife Jess, and Olympic and Paralympic champion Dame Sarah Storey.

We set off early, registered, collected numbers and got the bikes ready. Then the heavens opened. The warm up and the HC for myself and many of the earlier starters was atrocious, 7 degrees and monsoon weather greeted us, eventually subsiding before the finish.

Many riders took their TT bikes instead of HC machines, a choice which was one that I feel made a reasonable difference on the day with a couple of drags of headwind where the aero would have been nice.

Regardless, I finished in 11:48.9; around 3mins down on the winner (Dan Evans), around 1 min behind Sarah Storey and 34th overall. I averaged 310w for the climb and recorded new power PBs, though how my legs felt afterwards suggests I could have pushed quite a bit more.

Am I pleased with how it went?

Overall, i'm glad to get the first one out of the way. It wasn't my sort of climb but I should have pushed more on the day. Getting back racing was fun and there are plenty more to come - Snake Pass, Riber, Bank Road, Holly Lane and Monsal Head all in my diary over the next 2 months.

This weekend we have a ride focusing on HC training (including some of the climbs mentioned above) to get some proper plans of attack, but first, I need to get through this week of placement.