After a short break from racing, and with my new bike now perfectly set up, I was ready to get back into racing in todays Challenge FMC 2017, a 21.8km individual time trial of the Madrid Championship, with 200 riders across all categories. The prominent teams were fielding some of their riders, and most riders were using full aero TT bikes and aero kit. I contested the event on my road bike, in normal road kit, with my training wheels, so I was interested to find out how I would go against the full aero riders, especially after my recent break from racing.
There were two climbs on the course, but the main opponent for all riders was the heat, with temperatures during the day hovering around 40 degrees!
I was a bit disappointing that the two riders in front of me had pulled out, so I didn’t have a rider up ahead (1-minute time-gaps) to ‘chase’ and pace myself against. Part way into the course, my team car had to pull back, and when I looked back, I saw to my surprise that the rider behind had caught me. As we hit the climb I increased my power and never looked back. A while later I hear “Vamos Sol! Vamos! Vamos!” – and there was my team car alongside me again, with team director Alvaro hanging out of the car and motivating me to put the hammer down. I looked back again and the rider who had previously caught me was nowhere in sight, I had dropped him!
I crossed the line absolutely gagging, as my throat had dried up in the sweltering heat.
I came 10th in the elite category, 18th overall, and my team mate Oscar Aranda came 1st in the U23 category! CAMPEÓN DE MADRID CRI!. My time was around 2.50 down, although like I said, I was on a road bike, wearing non-aero kit and non-aero wheels, so it’s difficult to say what time I could have achieved if I was using full Aero kit.
Still, it was a good competition to get my legs ready for racing next week. Bring it on!