I do not generally enter many open 10’s, indeed the last one I entered was March 14, however, inspired by Jim Williams performance in Hull a few weeks back, and my wish to obtain a sub 22:30 to obtain the senior gold standard, I entered this a few weeks back. As It happens, I actually got the standard on the on the club 10 champs, so I refocused my ambition to try an obtain an entry into one of the Hull events next year.
Levens is on the A590 not far from Kendal. For those that are used to arriving at a village hall HQ and parking in a car park, this is nothing like that, in fact the sign on is in a lay by and the parking is right down the same road, very strange to see.
Bradley Wiggins hold the course record with 17:58, which has stood for 10 years and pre-race chat on the forums suggest that pre race favourite Ryan Perry may beat it as the forecast NW wind was favourable. I understand that it is one of them courses that can be quick or really soggy depending on the condidtions.
I was the only WVCC entrant, with a 18:58 start time. On the drive up there, it went all overcast and looked like rain, however, by the time I arrived the sun was shining with a quite a strong westerly wind.
I did a 15-20 minute warm up then headed to the start, from the off, you have a gift of a ramp start, albeit into the strong cross head wind, within the first mile on the fast down hill, there is a patch of really dodgy tarmac that rattles your fillings, fortunately, it does last too long. The outward leg to a roundabout on a dual carrigway is 5.2 miles, so longer into the headwind. At the bottom of the ramp start my average was up to over 30mph, I then spent the next 5 miles watching my average tumble while I battled the headwind! and by the turn, according to my Garmin I was down to 24.5 mph, god I was depressed.
Outward leg
As I started the return leg, my Garmin beeped to record 5 miles with a time of 12:12, therefore predicting a 24:24, it was at this point I realised my there was a problem as 5 miles should have been before the turn. I refocused and I just tried to concentate on Power by keeping my average over 340 watts. The return leg was amazing, my spirits were lifted while watched my average increase, and I caught my 2 minute man with a couple of miles to go.
Just before the finish
I stopped the clock on 21:29 (27.93 average), which knocked exactly 1 minute off my previous PB so I was more than happy with my performance. However, on reflection, this time may have just made it harder to get an entry to Hull, yesterday’s event on the V718 closed on 20:41! So now I am too slow to get into the standard race and too quick to get entry into the fastest 150 over 22:00 mins!
The event was won as expected by Ryan Perry, he obviously found the outward leg too much to test Brads time, his time was still an amazing 18