Novice to VTTA national age-record holder in 12 years
This lovely account is from time trial supremo Jen Clegg. More power to your elbow Jen, you inspire us all.
I did my first 10TT in 2011 when Steve Alden kindly rode me around the Bruntingthorpe course & gave give me an idea what to do. It was a fine place to learn about pacing, the impact of wind, & cornering faster. Steve kept repeating ‘get a time then beat it: the first result is always disappointing’ – mine was 32 something. WVCC was then at Bruntingthorpe for 5 weeks in a row, which allowed me to start learning how to pace a time trial. Going off too fast, starting steady but finishing with too much left in the tank, then getting an inkling of your threshold pace. Graduating to the Kibworth course’s relatively smooth tarmac the following year, a 90 second improvement hooked me for good.
There were technical step-changes. Stick-on tri bars seemed to be a cheap answer but my rudimentary mechanics meant they shifted whenever I hit a lump, making them more alarming than helpful. So I bought a useless hybrid road & TT bike that did neither job well, and a golfball helmet in the sale that George Barnett laughed at. Eventually I went to Speedhub in Lutterworth & bought a TT bike (Felt 1A) with power meter pedals, a conventional helmet, & had a bike-fit. 
That was great until I started going faster: downhill at more than 30mph the Felt became alarmingly twitchy. In 2021 that led to my current machine, an Argon 18 with lovely Enve wheels that remain stable at more than 40mph.
Kit helps – but so do people. At the start Linda Hubbard & I were the only women doing TTs: always many minutes behind her, Linda was nevertheless welcoming & encouraging. The club championship & associated leagues then took me beyond 10s to 20s & 25s. Bill Barrie was a major & generous influence throughout. He taught me a lot about bike riding & maintenance (though the wizard of Windmill Wheels, Jack Frisby, now keeps my bikes going). For me, Bill’s most memorable cycling lesson was how to create a containing torque across the bike between hands & feet, so I could take on a corner safely while descending rather than just drift around it.
When the covid lockdown happened I was a retired widow living alone who needed a new challenge, so I sought out a bike coach. Matt Bottrill had been coming to my gym for rehab after being knocked off his bike, so I approached him without knowing exactly how good or internationally famous he was. Many of his TT records from 2014 remain unbeaten, not least a staggering 18’35 for the Dunchurch 10 which ain’t flat. The coaching is hugely varied & mostly via the Training Peaks calendar: we meet 2-3 times a year, & exchange brief messages most days.  Matt’s coaching has got me much, much further than I ever imagined: these national age records are from the Veteran Time Trial Association website.
I have had the odd 2nd & 3rd place where the prize just covers the entry fee, but I got my first win at the recent VTTA Bert Christian Memorial 25-mile Open TT at Newark – a respectable £60. As often happens, I had the good company of Jon Durnin, Simon Ward & Doug di Bianchi to help celebrate. Very few women enter open TTs so the competition is nothing like as fierce as the men face – but as WVCC is proving, that can change rapidly & no doubt will.
Cycling culture is remarkable in its amiability & helpfulness. Heartfelt thanks to Steve & Bill for early advice and encouragement, occasional companions in WVCC’s Sunday morning Brisk group led by Chris Dainty, the amazing community of women who enter open TTs, & to Matt Bottrill for varied, expert, & always encouraging coaching.
Categories
