P is for P-P-P Pick up a PIGEON at the pre-Ironman Party

For the 8th round of my 2017 race schedule I darted home from work to get the bike out of the garage and ride to the Bickerstwffe time trial tonight where 35 riders would face the timekeeper. It was a cool night with light winds but unusually it was a north-easterly meaning we would get it somewhat easier to the M58, not much of a push to Rainford and then for once we wouldn't die on the way back. Or at least that was the plan. I arrived just before Stephen Nelson and drew number 13 before preparing to take the Focus Chrono Max out onto the D10/1 course for the first time. During my warmup I saw several riders heading to a chainey, either the HMCC or Bickerstaffe variants, but I did an extended loop round New Way and as a result ended up getting lost. I only recovered my bearings when I saw the horse stables and Tom Hanlon coming the other way so I downed a Beet It energy bar and made my way to the start line. A few horses escaped the mud track near the start line and a tractor nearly blocked us from setting off, but luckily we got an opening to park on the start line and at 7:13pm it was time to roll down the starting ramp.

My first push through the downhill left-right wasn't that impressive and it was made worse by a suicidal pigeon wandering across the road, only just flying away in time. It was great to get the marshals cheering us on at the roundabout onto the A570 but my cornering wasn't that good tonight and really the sweep onto the carriageway should have been much more purposeful. At least I could see my minute man ever larger as I reached the M58 roundabout and this gave me a bit of extra impetus as I rode back to the Wheatsheaf island, getting up to speeds of 28mph as I did so. I eventually caught No. 12 halfway between the Wheatsheaf and the Rainford islands, where I got clean runs through although the traffic was a bit distracting at the latter. Now two and a half miles remained for me to heave on the base bar and power down the straight towards the middle island before battering through the last mile and a half on that ever draining "false flat" but the final two right hand kinks soon came into view which meant I could start the YOLO in earnest and put the final sprint in for the line, eventually passing the chequerboard in a time of 23:20, on a night when the runaway winner Phil Williams did a 19:35 and Tom Hanlon's time of 21:15 was enough to secure him second place.

For his part Tom had been only too happy to (un)recommend Planet Flex wheels; I'll let him cover that one in more detail but it was certainly the first and last time I ever use the Zoot tri shorts to do a TT; one does not brace themselves against the nose of the saddle when not using either proper cycling shorts or a skinsuit. While we waited for Tom and Phil to arrive me and Stephen Nelson went to get tea and biscuits at the table inside the clubhouse where the host club proved very efficient at releasing the results table for everyone to read, where it turned out that Phil had finished within 11 seconds of my time and St Helens Tri teammate Diane Taktak had recorded a season's best. By now a few spits of rain were in the air so I prepared to ride home only for two toes in my left shoe to go completely numb! This held me up for 10 minutes while I let them re-set and it was only then that I could reopen the shoe and set sail for Ormskirk. On my way back I came across three C group riders as well as Mark and Claire Lane who were on their way back from the B group chainey. But that wasn't the end of it; upon passing the bicycle lounge a few lads on mountain bikes quizzed us about our machines, one saying "riding on the road is boring but your bike is sick" (referring to my Focus). Sadly for the little guy they don't make them small enough for him..........Mark and Claire went the opposite way at the Railway pub leaving me to ride home and collate the results after a tough night's racing on the Rainford speedway. Next week is a 25 but the 10's return the week after, why not have a go yourself?

Now for the results, brought to you by tonight's toe-killers, Specialized S-Works MTB shoes:

Distance: 10 miles
Time: 23:20
Final position: 16th from 35 entrants
Suicidal Pigeons: 1
Riders Overtaken: 1 on a Ridley Cheetah
New Fans: About half a dozen on mountain bikes (they can have my shoes in exchange for a Rockhopper)

REJECT OF THE RACE: The pigeon
(Not least because I was the 13th rider to roll down the start ramp)

Time to get some shut eye. Good luck to the Ironman entrants for Sunday!