Prologue: Bolting from the Barn

Stage One: 8 km prologue, downhill, what could be more difficult? Maybe a head wind. My start time was 16H07 with one minute intervals between riders. I was bouyed by a comment made by the rider two infront, that this has a short, fast cource and there was no chance of being caught. Understand my horor when no more than a Km from the finish I have a yellow lightening bolt shoot by me in the form of my chasing rider, I was crushed!! I had left the start house and immediatly kept the speed up to over 50Km/h for the first km, I dropped down to about 45km/h as I straightened up into the head wind, but kept my head down for most of the way. Occassionaly the wind would buffer me about pushing me across the road , the speed would drop and I would scramble to find a lighter gear. As I rode I constantly berated myself when ever I felt my speed slacking off. Unofficialy 10min 50 sec. (The wining time was Just over 9min).

Conclusions; I'm not a specialist time trialer!! But the experience was well worth it. Did the TT bike help. Yes , in the head wind by keeping me low I am convinced I limited the damage. Will have to wait to see by how much.