Thursday 4 August - TT Course

After too long off the bike due to the summer holidays for the children and busy weekends I found myself at the top of Bray Hill in the Isle of Man about to tackle the famous TT Mountain course last Thursday morning.

I was never going to trouble the record held by Chris Boardman of 1hr 23m 54s, especially seeing as it took me nearly 10 miles to really get going, as usual it took me a while to get into it, maybe a warm  up is in order next time.

Its a good job I did get going then as at 9 miles came the first of the two real climbs, this one the much shorter 1.5 mile climb up past Sarah's Cottage. At this point I was wondering if I would make it up the cat 2 climb up the mountain!  I had 13 miles of steady decline though to charge the legs up, this was a very nice 13 miles, bowling along at a good rate and at times taking a well earned breather.

I arrived in Ramsey knowing what was in store for me having driven up the mountain 2 days before, the only thing I could do was brace myself, the climbing started, the hairpin was soon upon me, this was OK... It was about 3 miles into the climb it began to bite, I turned out of the shelter of steep bank by the road into a stiff cold headwind, the gradient still tough I was struggling a little, luckily this didn't last too long as the gradient eased at just under 4 miles climbed.  I now had thick fog to deal with!  Up to this point (after leaving Douglas) I had had sun on my back, this made the very wet roads a little more bearable.  I climbed through the fog and finally reached the bungalow after nearly an hour of climbing!  I hadn't pushed hard up the mountain, I had just about ridden inside myself.

The decent from the Mountain was spoiled by the thick fog which didn't reduce until I was almost back in Douglas, I did touch over 40 mph though, whilst peddling down the other side, it wasn't a steep decent at all, just a nice steady down hill stretch.

I made it round in 2 hrs 40 mins, not brilliant by any means, I could probably take 15 mins off that if I warmed up, pushed it harder and had better weather conditions, I'm not moaning though, it was a great ride and it has given me a real appetite to take my bike back to the IOM and really explore what it has to offer for the cyclist.




Distance = 37.7 miles
Time = 2 hrs 40 mins
Ave Speed = 14.1 mph
Top Speed = 41.1 mph
Hillometer = 74.3 ft/mile
Max H/R = N/A
Ave H/R = N/A
Weather = Sunny/Foggy, 14c

2011
Road Bike = 1333
Single Speed = 63.5
Fixed = 16
Indoor = 44.4
Total Mileage = 1456.9