Race Report – City Cycle Couriers 10 mile TT

Mid Devon CC took 3 out of the top 5 places in this early season tester on the popular S4 course at Buckfastleigh. Matt Langworthy took the win with an an outstanding 19.19 with Ian Cullen taking 2nd 20:41 and Gary Fouracres 3rd 20:54. Mid-Devon took the team prize with Harrison Wood (21:18) as the fastest Junior and setting a PB over the distance

Matt reports as follows

After my first race of the season last weekend, I was looking forward to getting some good numbers to train off from the 10 this weekend. I got a decent week in of long endurance rides and some threshold efforts all out on the road mid-week thanks to some warm, dry weather in Devon.
Decent conditions (for February) greeted us on Sunday morning with a light north westerly so I thought a decent ride might be doable. I wanted to do a sub 20 early season to get the moral up from missing out on the podium last week. I was the penultimate rider off and braved showing the legs for the first time this year considering it was pushing a roasting 10 degrees.
I know the S4 pretty well now and it’s a course you need to know where to push it and where to rest. It starts downhill for a few km which is good with the tailwind out as it means you’re soon spinning out so it’s hard to overcook it. I hit the drag up to the turn and was feeling pretty strong so pushed it on above my threshold knowing I could rest at the turn. I hit the slip road in under 9 minutes so I knew I was on for a good one. Down the hill heading back I concentrated on being as aero as possible and hit the last bridge bridge in sub 17 minutes so I knew a sub 20 was definitely happening. The last drag to the line takes what feels like an eternity. It just goes on and on into a headwind but I found some extra and pushed it all the way to cross in 19:19 – a new course PB for me. I was happy with this and hit my PB power numbers from last season in the Nat 10 so I was going well.
Next on the calendar for me is the Primavera which I’m looking forward to hitting with some decent form. Thanks to Rob and the rest of the organizers for a great event.

Fastest Junior Harrison Wood

This was my first event of the 2017 year. It was an early season s4 on the A38 so decided to give it a go to try and see if I’d made much improvement apon last year. I had just got back from doing some nordic skiing in the Alps so was feeling fresh but the tt position did however feel slightly alien to me I started off fairly steady but not a typical cafe cruise kind of pace. It was a tailwind out and a headwind back which meant I had to go steadier outwards. I built the power out to the turn and my numbers/speed was looking good On the way back I began to feel the pain that I hadn’t felt for a while. The legs began to really hurt now but I just dug deep and pushed onto the finish line to get a 21.18 I was pleased with this as it was a PB for me and early in the season Now to look forward to racing my first road race being Primavera. Onwards and upwards I hope