The picturesque lakes and mountains were the backdrop of this years National Emergency Service Time Trial Championship, which was held in Keswick, Cumbria.
A field of 80 riders and included riders from Police, Fire, and Prison services from across both England and Scotland. Sadly, predicted poor weather saw the 10-mile TT on Saturday cancelled, leaving only Sundays 25 mile race to decide the outcome of the championship.
There was a very high standard of riders in both the Road bike and TT bike categories, the later much faster on this gently rolling course. Paul set off at his allotted time at precisely 09:59 and settled into a steady 25mph+ pace and adopted a tucked riding position to eke out any aerodynamic advantage as he could find. It wasn’t long before a much faster TT bike passed him, however this was not a race of machines, it was a race of the clock. Paul kept his head and continued to maintain his tempo aiming for a target of completing the course in an hour or less.
The halfway point and course turnaround came up much quicker than anticipated, and Paul took back a few places from slower riders in front of him and lost a few to overtaking TT bikes!
The return to the start finish line was a deceptive false flat and in the remaining miles, and as fatigue took hold Paul lost a few tenths in his MPH average, resulting in him finishing with a total time of a little over 1 hour and 2 minutes.
A long wait ahead as other riders finished, and the results were posted. Paul’s rider was a fantastic effort and saw him finish on the podium in second place in the road bike category. This is the team’s first individual podium and only our second podium following a 3rd in the team category in 2019.
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