Tonight was my first Bristol South ‘Round the lake’ time trial of the year, down at Chew Valley Lake.

Ed had put in his first lake TT last week with a time of 21:24, a decent time but one which he planned to beat with a bigger gear inch of 103 this week.

The weather was near perfect this evening & we couldn’t have asked for better conditions for a scenic race around the lake. Not that you have much time to check out the view when you’re looking at the road & pedalling as hard as possible, but it was a welcome relief to be riding in the sun & without knee warmers.

I set off 1 minute in front of Ed, which is never a bad thing as it gives him someone to chase, and gives me someone to stay away from. We work well like this, Ed’s my Mr Miyagi & I’m his TT Karate Kid. Ed did overtake me after 5 miles of the 8.2 mile course, his bigger gear inch gave him a massive advantage down one of the slopes, but I kept steadily behind him, my 94GI proving spot on for the up hill sections.

My aim for the race was to keep up an average speed of 22mph, enough to give me a decent race time, I was keeping an eye on my Garmin throughout & it was looking totally doable until I hit the hills, dropping my average to way below the 22 mark. But I kept pushing, and realising I was within sight of the finish line I gave it my all, and came home with a time of 21:48, an average of 22.6mph, way faster than my lake times of last year, which I’m super happy with. Ed beasted it on his 103GI & got himself a 20:32, his next aim will be the 20 minute mark.