Reflections on my cycle racing days!

 
Watching the Tour De France had me thinking of my modest cycle racing career back in the mid 80's-early 90's.
I guess my best year was 91 where I won the club 10 mile TT with a personnel best of 22.18
That year I designed my own time trail bike and had it built to my own specifications.
I was inspired by a combination of the latest Triathlon bikes and Graeme Obree's time trail machines!
I had a very upright seat tube which allowed the rider to get more force into each pedal thrust and used one piece Tri bars which gave me the Obree Superman position!
I turned up on my bike at the clubs 24 mile Hilly TT in March to much laughter from the local club riders, but after finishing 3rd they looked a bit subdued!!!
I spent the summer doing a combination of road racing and time trials, I remember once riding 22 miles to a 55 mile road race then riding home to give me a total of 99.5 miles, it was too tempting not to ride round the block to get a solid 100 miles in for the morning!
This sort of training paid off and in July I won the local 10 mile TT with 22.18
I remember Chris Boardman once turning up at one of our 10 mile races and beating me by 5 mins!
I got my own back on him at the 2009 London Marathon where I gave him a beating of over 17 mins :0]
Gethin Butler [ Cycling records - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ] was another class rider who occasionally turned up, he could do 17 mins for 10 miles and gave me a good thrashing!
But yet again I got my own back by beating him by 1 sec at the 2010 London Marathon after he blew up!
The 10 mile TT's were bloody painful and by the end of the summer of 92 I'd pretty much had enough, that and a knee injury led me into running in 93 and a new beginning!
Looking at the dreadful weather we get nowadays I'm pretty glad I don't have to train on the bike anymore.
Wow but is it really 20 years since I last raced on the bike, I guess so!!!
 
A young Graeme Obree pictured with a young Chris Boardman

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