Here is his write up of the journey to get there... With sincere thanks to Davey Jones for permission to use his excellent photo of Chris during the event
Third time's the charm...
Despite being a true endurance cyclist on the road bike (I can't sprint, but if you fancy a fast 100-200 miles, I'm your man) my first attempt at a 50 last May went atrociously. My power meter was on the fritz, I forgot my HRM and there was a strong wind... I blew spectacularly after smashing through the headwind to the first turn and grovelled my way to 40th place with 2.11.19.
It took a full year for the memory of that agony to fade before I tried my next 50, again on the H50/8. This time, my power meter was behaving, I had a new bike and my position was massively refined... so no excuses. I took 17th in 1.54.05 - a great improvement, but not the result I'd been hoping for. Luckily it was just enough to secure me a place at the Shaftesbury open 50 - entries closed out at 1.55, so it was going to be a competitive field.
In the run up to the event there were murmurings that conditions would be slow, with a strong wind blowing from the South-West. Quite a few riders decided not to ride - there's no gift hill and slogging back into a 20mph wind for 30-40 minutes wasn't going to be pleasant.
The first leg out into the wind saw me giving in to old bad habits and pushing far too hard. I hit the turn knowing I'd have to ease up, let the tailwind push me along and not get overexcited by the speed readings on the Garmin. I dialed it right back to 268 watts and still averaged over 32mph for nearly 34 minutes to the next turn.
Then came the headwind. I knew it was coming and I knew it was going to hurt, but it still came as a shock. The watts crept back up, but the speed dropped and dropped. Luckily I caught a couple of riders in quick succession and managed to silence the voice in my head telling me to abandon and the pain in my feet begging me to ease off. For me, TTs are all about pain management and once I'd straightened my head out it was simply a case of counting down the minutes.
I crossed the line in 1.45.32, utterly exhausted and broken, but over the moon. I'd taken 12th place, 2nd in the handicap, and more importantly I'd narrowed the gap on three of the fastest riders at the H50/8. I'd gone from around 10 minutes down on Kevin Tye and Tejvan Pettinger to under five.
It's taken three bikes, countless equipment upgrades and endless position tweaks to get to this point... Not to mention around 45,000km of training over the past couple of years... We've got some really promising riders and I'd love to see more RCC at regional opens, taking a crack at the team prizes. I'm always happy to provide advice on training and equipment, so do drop me a line if you want to talk shop.
For the curious - the Strava file for the 50 is here: https://www.strava.com/activities/348759855