Scottish Olympic Time Trial

Scottish Olympic Time Trial - September 5th 2021

Words by Paul Davis

Who knew that walking/jogging and standing upright for a 10hour stint the day before a race wasn't good race prep....

Sunday I got a chance to get on the saddle rather than watching others on it with a trip down to sunny Hawick (just for you Bruce). Lovely flat out and back courses are fast and take up must of my race time - this certainly wasn't one of those with 33 miles, 2900ft of gain and a horrible stinger up the Dunion from Jed.

The day started off bad with my power meter reading all over the place then my HR monitor following suit - the Hawick Triangle at work or that I simply haven't changed the battery all year? For anyone like me who always rides to power they'll know that this is like loosing a limb but just shows you that you should ride to effort every now and then for occasions like this.

The route started with a 3 mile climb from Hawick till the decent into Bonchester before rising again for 8 miles all the way till you met the A68. Then the fun began - the next 10 miles gradually down hill averaging 32mph 😁 Then a smack in the face, I've never done the climb from Jed up the Dunion but I'll defiantly remember it. It's probably not too bad a climb on a road bike during a club ride but after 25 miles on a TT bike at my perceived threshold it was enough to almost end me. However, to the top I went followed by a technical decent before the last 4 mile drag back to Hawick finishing in 1:23:55 in 11th place.

No pictures of me yet despite numerous photographers on the course, I must have been going too quick......? On to the last race of the year teaming up with Ali for the ERC 2up at the end of the month.