An afternoon start meant a rare lie-in in the morning of a BUCS event for this year’s 3 Warwick entrants of the BUCS 25-mile TT – Dan Lord, Josh Small and Louis Genin. They were accompanied by the club’s most loyal supporter, Katie Mooney, who sacrificed her day to travel with Dan and Louis. Katie’s roars of encouragement undoubtedly shaved minutes off everyone’s time, putting her in contention for performance of the day.
First Warwick rider off was Josh at 13:00. He almost missed his start, having engaged in conversation with a man that said he lived just up the road by the Memorial Park. Despite his proximity to Warwick University, Josh was appalled to find out that his daughter was studying at Oxford University, so quickly redirected the conversation by asking if his rear light was working. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. Recent rule changes state that a rider must have both front and rear lights working or face immediate disqualification. Panicking, Josh got to the start line with the 10 second count down starting, light still not working. With seconds to spare, the light had a single faint flash but died again. The commissaire must’ve been feeling generous, because that single flash was enough to qualify in his eyes. Sadly, that was not the only thing that went wrong for Josh; he missed the first turning after being confused, despite the extremely clear hand signals the marshal was displaying. Eventually, Josh rolled in for a time of 1h:04m:36s, which was only good enough for 72nd. At least he has an easy time to aim to beat next year.
While Josh was having his many mishaps, Louis was getting ready to start at 13:12. After many months of consecutive 20-hour training weeks; having consumed 100s of bananas, 1000s of dates, 10000 pieces of pasta, 100000 grains of rice, he was ready. Nothing was going to get in the way of Louis and his bike. He set off at a blistering pace, averaging 339W for the first 10km. Surely, he couldn’t average this unholy power for the entire 40km? He didn’t. He smashed the TT out of the park, averaging 351W for the 00h:57m:50s it took for him to finish. This placed him 30th. Considering Louis was using a road bike with regular aluminium wheels, this time is incomprehensibly impressive. If he had the same equipment as some of the other competitors, Louis would likely be throwing his weight around somewhere in the top 10, scaring the pro riders with his iconic glasses. A spectacular effort for the upcoming time-trial specialist.
Dan was last off at 13:40. The year has started slowly for Dan, with training volume dipping and this race being his first of the year. We have all seen what he is capable of, winning brutal road races last season, but had there been enough preparation to perform well this early in the season? Like Louis, Dan started strong and just never relented. Through gritted teeth, Dan sailed home with a time of 00h:59m:03s. A massive effort, coming 37th. After being reunited with his two teammates, Dan expressed his concern that he came into a corner too hot and may have been disqualified by going into the wrong lane, Louis mentioned that he had the same problem. Josh was not going fast enough to have this issue. Luckily, nothing came of it and Dan came away pleasantly surprised with his time; the only improvements he needs to make are regarding his pain face (DM Josh for the wonky tongue photo).
A special thank you again to Katie for supporting everyone, and to whoever controls the rain for giving the competitors a brief spell of dry weather. This year provided fantastic results from the Warwick riders, and we look forward to seeing them continue to be successful on the road in the upcoming events. Congratulations to Louis for the best Warwick time. Congratulations to Dan for a strong effort too. Congratulations to Josh for being there.