Antelope 3-up 50km TTT - Saturday April 13th 2013

Sun 21 Apr 2013

Colin Bailey, Shaun Rose and Paul McGrath in top 20 finish in  Antelope 3-up TTT

Colin Bailey, Shaun Rose and I entered the 50km Antelope 3-up TTT, which was held down in Chalgrove, Oxon. We as Road racers entered the world of TTT to get some valuable practice in as riding as team. We have put in an application for a North Road team to enter the Ras de Cymru (Tour of Wales) in June and part of it incorporates a TTT. Finding time to ride together is difficult due to work/family and thought if we get accepted for Ras de Cymru we best of had at least a couple of runs out together.

We had only ridden once together before; this was at the Crest RR. So the 3-up TTT was going to be a learning experience more anything else.

The 3-Up TTT also had the BUCS Championships running within it. This meant it attracted a large quality field of 240 riders in 80 teams. Looking down the start sheet there was top quality pro teams such as IG-Sigma Sport with riders Wouter Synbrandy, Joe Perret and Andrew Griffiths as well as Magnus Backstedt, Liam Stones and Jamie Scott and the MG-Maxifuel team. Pro riders such as Wojciech Szlachta (twenty3c-Focus) were in the ranks of the University teams and a product of British Cycling Hannah Barnes representing the strength of the women riding.

After acknowledging it was a bit of who’s who, the nerves kicked in when we saw we were sandwiched in at the business end of proceedings. With all the big teams in and around us it was clear we wouldn’t be catching any one in front of us and have to be on the lookout for the teams behind us.

Teams started rolling out just after 1pm, our start time was not until 17:21 so quite late in the day. On arrival to sign in we could see we would be one of only a few teams riding road bikes and not rocking the full TTsetup, so already giving away a bit of time. What made matters worse was the fact at around 16:30 the weather took a turn for the worse with gusting winds and torrential rain. It continued to rain for the remainder of the day.

After getting changed and placing the swim cap over the helmet (my improvised aero helmet!!), the 3 of us hit the country lanes for a warm up. Not really a warm up as such, more like a mobile shower with a forceful intermittent freezing cold blow dry. On more than one occasion the words ‘who’s bloody idea was this’ where heard being muttered, not only from all members of North Road but from passing competitors and the start/push off marshals.

Our start time approached and we lined up ready to go, we watched MG Maxifuel and Arctic-Sram shoot off into the distance. We had a 3 teams going off behind us, High Wycombe (last year’s winners) directly after us and IG-Sigma Sport going off last. Our plan was to try and survive the 50 km without Sigma-Sport catching us. This meant we had a 9 minute head start. With the worsening weather conditions and the relative flat, non-technical course this was possible a big ask.

Colin, instigator of all this malarkey led the team off first. We had planned to ride a couple of minutes on the front at threshold and swap, and then take it from there. Colin and I have ridden a few times together so we are little bit more aware of each other’s capabilities. After a couple of miles we seemed to be rolling through OK and moving at a respectable average pace. The course had long undulating sections through open fields which in these conditions meant fierce cross winds. With me at 6’5 and weighing in at 87kg the wind did not have the same effect it had on my 5’ something 65kg teammates. Shaun’s main sport is hockey and does very little if any structured cycle training. He just rides his bike as hard and as fast as he can for as long as he can. We had only met Shaun once before today and in the space of matter of minutes he agreed to ride the Tour of Wales. That I think says it all, he likes a challenge, the bigger the better. Quite early on around 6 miles/10km of the 50km, we nearly dropped Shaun. His eagerness had got the better of him and he had just gone to deep into the red on his pulls on the front in the strong winds. To register a time, teams would have to finish with 3 men. So leaving him was not an option. Colin and I took over the duties on the front, with me taking longer turns in the more wind affected sections. Shaun being the battler he is, sat on and dug in and held on in there. This in these conditions meant sitting back wheel getting a face full of spray. After a while I think Shaun must of got fed up of getting constantly soaked by the pair of us, as after we rolled through the first part of our second lap Shaun came back to the front to take over duties.

We had managed to hold of High Wycombe for a lap with them passing us just as we crossed the halfway point. We would end up finishing 4 minutes down on them, meaning we only lost a minute to them on the 2ndlap compared to 3 on the first.

As the miles/km clicked down we kept nervously looking behind us to see if we could catch glimpse of Sigma Sport. Could we hold them off? 15km to go, I finished my turn on the front and took my place at the back of the little echelon we had formed to combat the wind across the field, a little look back and there was nothing. 10km to go, still nothing. 5km to go we turned on the drag home, still we saw nothing. For the finish we had to turn a 90' left off the main road with a straight dash to the line further 900 meters down . As we approached the turn we could see, from what appeared from nowhere the black and red steam train that was Sigma Sport, it was approaching fast. We turned the corner put our heads down and gave it the last push up the final 900m to the finish. With the finish line in sight we had nearly done it. As we were just about to cross the line Wouter Sybrandy and his Sigma Sport Team swung out to cross the line just in front of us. Damn almost but not quite.

We finished 9 mins 1 sec down on Sigma who would take the win. We placed 20th out of 80. Overall we were very pleased on the performance given the fact this was our first real outing together, the poor weather conditions, the level of competition and the lack of TT bikes etc, the result was a bonus. A touch over 2 mins quicker and we would of made top ten.

Top 30 results
    Team No Riders                             Team                 Lap 1     Final
1     80     Wouter Sybrandy Joe Perrett Andrew Griffiths         Team IG - Sigma Sport         00:33:53     01:05:34
2     74     Jamie Scott Liam Stones Magnus Backstedt         MG Maxifuel Pro Cycling     00:34:45     01:06:49
3     76     Tim Bayley Michael Broadwith Danny Axford         Arctic-SRAM Racing Team     00:34:50     01:07:43
4     68     Mark Baines Ed Clemens Chris Dredge             Spirit RT             00:35:29     01:08:50
5     15     Wojciech Szlachta Edmund Bradbury Charles Pitt-ford     Cambridge University CC     00:35:38     01:09:49
6     35     Richard Oram Alexander Murison Peter Medhurst         University of Exeter         00:36:02     01:10:16
7     78     Henry King Jonathan Shubert Lee Tunnicliffe         High Wycombe CC         00:35:08     01:10:17
8     72     Matt Harris Charles Mitchell Sebastian Ader         a3crg                 00:37:45     01:11:36
9     10     Ben Reid Aistis Simiaitis Douglas Bruce         Oxford University CC         00:36:46     01:11:41
10     58     Joel Lewis Justin Garon Kevin Hardwick             Arbis Colbert RT         00:37:10     01:12:18
11     20     Nick Baker Dan Bigham Jack Lawlor-Anderson         Oxford Brookes University     00:37:14     01:12:26
12     50     James Jobber Andrew Nichols Nick Latimer         University of Sheffield     00:37:22     01:12:27
13     55     Karl Moseley Stefan Harrison Mark Hammond         Stourbridge Velo         00:37:19     01:12:35
14     5     Alex Bostrom Jaroslav Zak James Graveston         Oxford University CC         00:37:16     01:12:39
15     73     Mark Cox Michael Murphy Paul Lloyd             Fairly United Cycling Team     00:37:20     01:12:39
16     19     Alastair Canaway Jack Peasgood Chris Wilkinson         University of Birmingham     00:36:59     01:12:46
17     65     Rob Fletcher Mike Wragg Richard Wood             Arbis Colbert RT         00:37:18     01:12:56
18     11     Liam Glen Pierre Thomas Doug Hall             University of Bath         00:37:58     01:13:52
19     40     Ben Wimpory Jonathan Coulson Christopher Bates         Loughborough University     00:38:17     01:14:07
20     77     Colin Bailey Paul McGrath Shaun Rouse             North Road CC             00:38:51     01:14:35
21     66     Karla Boddy Hannah Barnes Charline Joiner         MG-Maxifuel Pro Cycling     00:38:58     01:15:16
22     26     Creighton Varney Karl Alexander Dave Johnson         HWCC/VC10             00:38:37     01:15:34
23     45     William Haynes Andrew Miles Matthew Atkinson         Durham University         00:39:31     01:17:02
24     49     Rory Gilling Sam Nunn Nick Domise             Loughborough University     00:39:38     01:17:17
25     67     Nathan Blake Sean Nicolle Christopher Pillar         Oxford Tri Club         00:39:37     01:17:25
26     38     Andrew Myers Michael Caley Samuel Bennett         University of Sheffield     00:39:53     01:17:27
27     79     Peter Oliver Chris Edginton Neil Johnson         Fairly United Cycling Team     00:40:35     01:17:33
28     29     Alex Stephenson-Brown Joseph Withers Jonathan Dredge     University of Birmingham     00:40:07     01:18:01
29     75     Alex Peeke David Scott Adrian Trott             Welwyn Wheelers         00:40:08     01:18:19
30     64     Phil Watts Robert Watson Jonathan Hobby         North Hampshire RC         00:40:40     01:18:37

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