Some very good times being posted on here, Rob in particular who has taken to the sport like the proverbial duck to water.
I would argue however the relevance of the times posted are fairly meaningless unless we know what course they are done on, weather conditions and even traffic count. My better half, who some of you know, is ranked only around the 20th mark nationally because she doesn't ride the drag strip dual carriageways which over a 25 could easily be a difference of 5 mins or more compared with the slower spocos she does.
On hill climbs she is getting better as each season goes by and on Sunday clocked 23 min 22 sec for the Cat & Fiddle, which for all of nearly three and a half minutes was the new women's hill climb record
, the old record was 24.13. Anyone else got times for the climb apart from Rob of course who did a 21, cracking ride.
I agree, however the way the sport works, it doesn't seem to matter, even though it should be taken into account, which is a source of frustration for me.
I ride for position, it is a race after all and I am there to race against other people, so the course is largely irrelevant, however, on the odd occasion I have wanted to ride a fast course to beat one of the club's 'standard' times, it has been a game of chance. I have been rejected twice because my fastest time has not been fast enough even though I would beat at least a 3rd of those that did get in! The problem is, organisers don't look at the course you did the time on before deciding whether it is fast enough of not, they just take it completely out of context. My 57 on J2/9 is probably worth a short 53 on a fast 25TT course like Etwall, however an organiser just sees 57 minutes, too slow to make the grade, better luck next time. I have done about 35 races so far this season, 4 on fast courses, i.e. DC's, well 5 if you count Rainford Bypass, but there was barely a car in sight on there and the times reflected that, i.e. it was not fast, in fact I went slower than on my local SC course by about 15 seconds. I enjoy it occasionally, but it would get boring quick if you did it all the time, chasing PB's!
However to contextualise the times above:
My stated 10 time is from the V718 in Hull, however, I had a crap ride that day, so the time doesn't really reflect the advantage the course gives you over my local courses (around 2 minutes according to past runs, 23:37 on J2/1 to 21:24 on V718 in May).
I have done 21's on a number of courses all DC's IIRC but not all busy ones, the Nantwich to Crewe DC is pretty quiet especially at around 7:30 on a weekday evening. My fastest time on J2/1, SC course in Cheshire is 22:03.
Overall fastest 25 was on the J5/8 (Concrete Mountain). Fastest 25 on J2/9 is 57:38.
BTW, thanks for the kind comments, I was pretty pleased to come 15th with such a large field, obviously got the usual niggling feeling of FFS could have gone just 10 seconds faster to get under 21 mins though, hah. Helen did a great ride, good luck in her upcoming events. Hopefully see you at the national! Oh and Circuit of the Dales + Buxton Mountain TT next year?
Of course ultimately I'd like to win, but winning, even a "podium" position, is well out of reach at this stage. To consistently come top 10 is a nice goal for me as I consistently fall just outside of it.
