French Cup Time Trial

Until 2 day before the time trial I was to ride a road frame that was converted to a time trial bike, then the team went out and bought me a brand new Pinarello FT1 time trail bike which was a big boost to confidence for the race, even though it shouldn't really have mattered. So I only got to do very minimal kilometres on it before the race and looking back at some of the photos now I can see that my position can be changed alot to get into a more aerodynamic position. It was a French Cup Time Trial which con-sistered of one 24 km lap that was undulating. On the day of the race I felt confidant of a good result as I had been over the course twice the day before and I felt it was a course that suited me well. The plan was to take it out strong but not to hard as I still needed to be strong for the last 8 km as it was a straight highway with a head wind to the finish line. Just before I left a time of 31.01 min had been set by a french rider as the fastest time. With in the first few km of the start my legs had already started to feel quite heavy and I had not even hit the gas hard yet, so this wasn't a good sign to start. When I approached the first of 2 hills I went to change down form the big chain ring to the small one, as I did this the chain was flung straight off which cost me a few seconds as I fixed it. Then at the top of the hill I went to change to the big chain ring but it just didn't want to do it so I had to use my fingers. So the first 10 km didn't go to well but the rest of the course I felt quite strong and even over took the person that went off in front of me after about 15km which was a good sign as we were 2 minutes apart. The final 3km was where I lost a lot of time as I died really quick even after I had been conservative though out the race. I finished in a time of 32.47 minutes, the winner ended up doing a time of 30.22mins.