Tour of Cambridgeshire Time Trial - 6th June 2015

Sat 06 Jun 2015

6th June 2015 - Tour of Cambridgeshire Time Trial - By Steve James
Back in January, on a whim, I entered the Tour of Cambridgeshire Chrono which was billed as the UK’s first true fully closed road Time Trial event. Run over a sporting 16.5 miles course on some closed B roads west of Peterborough Arena. This was a bit different to your normal early hour start in a lay-by for a CTT open event. The start was off a ramp indoors in one of the halls of the arena. There was a large warm up area equipped with about 30 turbos with the spectators watching you.  Full electronic scoreboard set up in the arena, running commentary and a whole host of stalls selling cycling paraphernalia. To accommodate the large number of riders we were set off at 30 second intervals. And the roads were closed which meant the 4 right turns on the course could be taken full tilt if nothing else. Was a bit pricey at £34 but worth it to get a very different experience.
Weather was sunny but incredibly windy which made bike control really difficult in the cross wind sections. There were 533 starters, it was won by Matt Bottrill in 34.11. I did 43.22 to come 275th overall and 14th out of 31 in my age category. This was a UCI event and a qualifier for the World Road Amateur Championships being held in Denmark in September. Top 25% of each age category qualified. I missed out on that by about 1’25” so won’t have to shell out for a GB skin suit and a ticket to Denmark.
 
Video of the event here and by some bizarre coincidence I am the first rider shown down the ramp. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbBdoXRpo6s
Steve