Club member Stephen Boxall recently took part in a National Championship ride, read the article below to see what he got up to...
"When my sister asked me to do a bit of dog sitting for her my first reaction was to check what races were on down south that weekend. Couple of 25s nearby, but then there was the national 50 mile race a bit further afield. Usually I’d have plumped for the local 25 - I’m nowhere near the right standard to race a nationals, but this year things seemed to have clicked into place for TTs (road racing less so ) and while I’ll never be one of the ‘fast lads’ I’ve surprised myself by knocking time off my PBs for 10, 25 and 50 miles. What the hell, let’s give it a punt…
So 4am in the morning of the race the alarm goes off (why am I doing this ). Quick walk with the dog, who was just as bemused at being woken up so early, downed my morning coffee, shovelled some breakfast down and out the door.
Roads were obviously quiet at that time but the hour and a half long journey seemed to take an age whether this was down to the usual pre race nerves or excited anticipation, who knows. I was too tired to tell!
Got to race HQ with just over an hour before my start and went to sign on. Greeted by a cheerful chap from Wessex CC and eyeing up my Houghton jersey immediately asked me “How’s Eddie? - you know Eddie McGoulery…” even at the opposite side of the country everyone seems to know our local legend!
Kitted up and awkwardly pinned the additional arm numbers on - any ideas why we need extra numbers at a nationals? Pumped up the tyres and got on the bike for a warm up (with a few pre race nervous pees thrown in) before making my way to the start. The P417 is a bit of a funny course- made up of three loops up and down the A35 to the west of Poole. A short east to west loop, a long west to east run and a short loop to make up the distance. You’re drawn into a bit of a false sense of security, the opening loop is on wide dual carriageway on nice tarmac. I’d got a run down of the course from Lou from PDQ Cycling so half new what to expect, but it was still easy to get carried away- the road was smooth and my legs fresh, at least for now… at least I thought I was going well! After just 10 miles my TWO MINUTE MAN Rob Francis came storming past me like I was stood still! Rob would go on to finish 8th and 10 minutes quicker than me (and still complain afterwards that he was on a ‘bad day’!) thankfully he was the only rider to pass me.
The short out and back loop passed the start line and the road changed to single carriageway on some very rough tarmac. I could immediately see my speed drop, despite trying to put the power down. The course also has a distinct lack of flat road anywhere to be seen and whilst not hilly is constantly undulating with a few sharp pinches. It made getting into any sort of rhythm difficult, but I tried to focus on what I’d been practicing - push out the power on the uphill sections and get as aero as possible on the descents. After two roundabouts in close succession on the Bere Regis bypass the single carriageway opens up again into dual lanes, the big caveat is that the surface is horrible - concrete roads with regular joins that thumped through my wheels every few metres. It was also at this point that the weather decided to turn. The previous few sunny days gave way to drizzle and then heavy rain, this initially came as a welcome relief to cool me down a bit. A few long drags up the rough dual carriageway to the welcome turn at Troy Town, I’d been battling against a cross headwind up til then and was definitely ready for a bit of wind assistance. Blasting back down the dual carriageway I was doing speeds in excess of 40mph at times and flying past a number of earlier riders shouting out a bit of encouragement to them as I passed. Then, approaching the first of the Bere Regis roundabouts I noticed a bit of traffic queuing. Time to slow down. Off the aero bars and onto the brakes. Nothing happened. I squeezed a bit harder still nothing. SHIT SHIT SHIT. Suddenly the water must have cleared off my rims and the brakes bit, locking my rear wheel and causing me to snake over the road. Still don’t know how I kept upright and missed the traffic but I just about made it round the roundabout in one piece. Phew. The next roundabout was a hard left, I approached very cautiously and slowly navigated the bend at snails pace. Better safe than sorry!
Traffic was building up now and the spray from the cars covered my visor and made visibility a bit challenging. I was also faced with a long line of traffic waiting to overtake a slower rider. Off the aero bars again as I frustratedly freewheeled waiting for my chance to get by. After what felt like a few miles (but was probably a lot less!) The lorry at the front of the queue got its chance to overtake and I finally managed to get by. Feeling slightly refreshed from the pause in effort I tried to push along. After carefully navigating a few more roundabouts I was finally into the last 5 miles. Remembering Eddie’s advice now was the time to empty the tank and give it all I had. My final efforts were punctuated by slipping round the last few roundabouts before turning left onto a narrow country line for the last 500m sprint to the line screaming out my number 82 as I passed the timekeepers. Puffing and panting I stopped my computer and glanced down at the clock: 1 hour 51. A few minutes slower than the PB I’d set a few weeks previously on the much quicker L5012 course in the Lake District, but given the tricky course and conditions I was happy enough and 5 minutes faster than my Spindata predicted time. Getting a bit nerdy my power output was over 300 watts for the race, over 15 watts higher than when I set my best time for 50 miles. Riding a National must give you a bit of an extra lift!
As I spun back to the car I got chatting to a rider from Poole Wheelers, he’d studied at Durham Uni and used to ride with Cestria and also knew of the Houghton - he ‘fondly’ remembered riding our 25 as a student.
Back at HQ I signed out collected a commemorative mug and pen (bonus!!) and had a look at the results board. Provisionally in 4th spot, obviously most of the faster riders were yet to finish, but I could pretend I was up there!
More riders filtered in and the results went up on the board, some scarily quick times headed up by John Archibald in an unbelievable 1hr 33 averaging over 32mph (over 5mph faster than me!). Wow. My aim was to get into the top half of the field of 102 riders in the Open category. I managed 35th and 5th in my age group. I usually leave TTs feeling that I could have done more, could have pushed harder at times, but on the day I think I gave it as much as I could and despite being held up a few times and cornering like a scaredy-cat, I’m pretty happy with that.
Endless podium presentations followed with medals for all of the age group winners, team prizes and finally the podium for the female and open event winners. The female win went to Kate Allen, with Alex Clay and Laura Davies rounding out the podium. Joining John Archibald on the open podium were Adam Duggleby and (former world hour record holder) Alex Dowsett. Overall a great day out and really proud to be able to represent the club at a national event. Thanks as ever to everyone at the club for their advice and support (and to John Reed for the Ineos fuel!)"
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