#team time trial ocbccycle singaporecycling cycosports
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National TTT Championship 2018
I love TTs. The simplicity, the fancy gear and the lack of corners!
We got 3rd in last years blue riband Elite Quad TTT and so we’re hoping to take a few steps up on the podium order. With few in town & Mike focussing on his birthday ride, we were down to 4 suspects - Pierre, Adam, Peter Bennett and myself.
With Bintan concluding in the previous weekend, there was little time for practise and none of us touched our TTT machines till 2 day’s before the race when we did a quick burn up the Coast Road. I loaned Adam my spare Cannondale but the brakes broke & he ended up borrowing another on the eve of the race.
Uncle Pete took control of the tactics and this turned out to be a crucial element as the margin between the TOP 5 teams was tiny.
We all neglected to do the UCI bike test on the Saturday and did it just before the race. This was stupid as we found that every bike was massively illegal! I’m not sure how it was possible as I’d had to do some massive changes to my set up at the last TT - only to find that I was still illegal to the 2.5 inch mark! Some aggresive modification was required and I literally couldnt adjust the bike more.
Elite Quad had 8 teams and standard was Super high. We rolled out 7th in front of good crowds and in great weather.
Pete took us out to Ensure that we didn’t go too fast - but we still hit over 50km/hr on the outward leg. We passed our 1 minute men at the 7km mark and caught maybe 2 more during the race.
1st leg was hard, 2nd leg was steady but 3rd leg was a bit of a struggle. I went from 1 minute turns to only 40 seconds by then. Pete B did a death pull about 2km from the end and then it was up to the 3 of us to bring it home.
Final average of 47.4km was enough for the win - by 9 seconds over a 3 man Mavs team. TWC were a few seconds further back with Matadors in 4th. All the TOP 4 did above a 47 average showing the level of the race.
Pete and I were meant to do the Masters Duo later but decided to skip that and take our medal for beers!
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Ocbc Team Time Trial
The first TTT on Singapore soil in 3 years! It’s also the inaugural trip to a new road for the event (which we’re not allowed to name since it’s not officially open).
Team preparation for the race was spotty and consisted of one 20km effort the week before the race. With two of our boys on road bikes & some stiff competition, it looked like a stretch to win it but a podium seemed possible with a good ride/luck.
The forecast threatened rain but Pierre/Will/Sofiane and myself rolled out for the 40.5km in relatively calm temperatures and a mostly dry road. We caught our minute men (Guercotti) in about 7km and things were going well.
The new road was Super smooth but the wind from the beach was harsh at times. We averaged 46km north and 44km the other way. My heart rate monitor was dead so I’ve no idea on the HR but it was a hard grind. We ended up 3rd with a 45 average. SCF took it ahead of the Mavs with us about 1 minute back.
I then had two hours before joining the Elite Duo with Pete. I’d planned ahead and an hour of protein, carb and laying on my back was ordered. However by the time we went off, I still felt empty and couldn’t face even a basic warm up. The temperature had risen dramatically and the finish line air bridge was constantly being knocked over by the rising wind.
We had some banter with main rivals Ben & Michael from Matadors - where I accidentally managed to crack Michaels helmet visor… we started conservatively and also screwed up our clip in - losing a chunk of time. By the 1st turn, we could see matadors had made up some time on us and were maybe 45 seconds back. We kept plugging away but I was feeling the Quad effort and with Pete still recovering from knee injury, it was a losing battle. We maintained the gap but couldn’t claw back the lost time. In the end, we managed a 42.5avg but still got beat by 25 seconds.
A great event with huge crowds and entrants. The new road was excellent and it was good to get a couple of podiums.
Thanks to Rhys Cheng and anyone else who's excellent photos I appropriated.
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