Wrexham 15_4_12

15th April - Wrexham 24-mile mountain time trial

The Englishman who went up a hill, and then went up a mountain. Wrexham? It certainly did.

Beginning and ending with climbs of the Horseshoe Pass, another 'sporting' event under my belt. And I seem to be taking the cold weather with me wherever I go - scraping the ice off the car in the morning, I knew it was still going to be on the cool side for the race. My anticipation wasn't in vain, with event HQ at the infamous Ponderosa cafe near the summit of the Horseshoe there was a chilling 3-mile descent to the start.

After shivering badly going downhill, I needed a warm-up to warm-up after the so-called warm-up. I have to admit to underestimating the severity of the first ascent. Part-way up the hill there was a notice that said "20%" (1in5), but having done a lot of hillies this year I don't believe that was accurate - I think it was more like 13% (1in7). Nonetheless the stuffing was taken out of me over the previous 2 miles of climbing and an earlier steep section. Finding that pulling against bar-end aero brake levers was not comfortable I was beginning to wish I had either selected my road bike, or had swapped chainsets for a 34 inner ring. Despite my crumbling psychology and physiology, I made it to the top (I think it was about 20 minutes of climbing).

Thereafter, a 1.5mile high-speed drop off the Horseshoe, and another steep, small chainring climb before entering the sweeping bends of the descent of the Nant-y-Garth Pass on the way to Ruthin. Some minor hold-ups with traffic (which now seems to be a 'norm) before retracing. I enjoyed the climb back up the Nant-y-Garth and also the finishing climb of the Horseshoe, but I don't think the overall result was much to write home about.

Oooh! I was passed by the great Andy Wilkinson on the descent of Nant-y-Garth - he swept impressively through the bends and I quickly lost sight of him. At that point he had caught me for 8 minutes in the space of about 10 miles...a privilege to watch. I ended up with 1:22:44, 29th out of around 70. The winner was the highly impressive youngster, Ryan Mullen in 1:2;21 to Andy Wilkinson's 1:3:55 and there aren't many people in the country that would get the better of Wilko.

On reflection, my modest sub-20mph ride doesn't look too bad if these folks didn't break 24 mph when they'd normally navigate courses at around 30mph. I couldn't find any pictures of me struggling up the hills, but see the race profile.

Richard Cary 20/04/2012

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