In preparation for the upcoming World Championships in London in September I decided to include some open category time trials in my training as these are great for strength and speed, and don't take up a huge amount of time either in a busy week. A scan through the CTT handbook at local races saw me single out the Fenland Clarion 25 mile TT, which uses the St Ives 10 course twice with a 5 mile bolt on. Experience has taught me that this course can be hard, with a tough wind blowing across the A1 and a changeable road surface.

A bit of digging around revealed last years winner did a short 54 min ride (!) and was entered this year as top seed. So with all thoughts of the win removed from my mind I approached it as good training.

Fellow St Neots CC rider 17 year old Tom Stead entered with me and we arrived at the HQ in my typical style of 2 hours early - I dont do late! With a good luck handshake for Tom - he was number 15 and I was 25 - he set off and I began my final warm up sprints.

My start was great and I was flying, it even felt like the old day - ha! I'd set 25mph into my Garmin on virtual pacer and soon began to gain time on that quickly. I saw Tom coming the other way and he looked strong and it reminded me that Abbotsley is such a good course for strength training and will equip you to race/ride anywhere.

I knew I was going well and felt I was up on number 30, one of the top seeds, but you never know. Digging really hard for the last 5/6 miles I began to suffer in the last couple of miles and this is where you have to be so strong mentally because its easy to lose all your hard work at this point.

With a big push for the line I ended up with a time of 56 mins and 43 seconds, an average of about 26.5mph, not bad but I felt not enough for the win as these are full time time triallers and dont have to swim or run. I was wrong as it was enough, and I won the event by 14 seconds from last years winner. Tom also did very well coming top junior and 14th overall in 59.48. I really enjoyed the event and it felt great to win.

Our next race is this weekend 18/08/2013 outside Cambourne and its a 2-up 10 mile TT. My team mate will be Tom and there is some very stiff competition and it will be short and fast hopefully around low 20 mins so wish us luck.

Richard Hancock