A Rapid 20

My closest road cycling club is Tring Velo Club. While I've not had chance to join them for one of their Sunday morning rides yet (maybe next week?), I have been following them on Facebook.

A couple of months back one of the club members posted a challenge. To complete a "Rapid 20". He posted a 20 mile round route from Tring, with the challenge of completing the circuit in under an hour, averaging north of 20mph.

"A Rapid 20" circuit from Tring

 At this stage in my cycling I knew I was nowhere close to a consistent 20mph rider, however I've had in mind for a while then when the opportunity arose I'd like to ride it, just to benchmark myself and my progress.

I got such an opportunity today, and did my own individual time trial. For this part of the world it was pretty flat, other than a nasty little ramp into Wingrave after six miles. And for a first go with relatively few road miles in my legs I was pretty satisfied with a time of 1hr 13mins, an average of 16.5mph.

Here's my ride on Strava. I look forward to trying to improve this as the training builds to August, and hopefully riding the route as a team TT with Becca and Chris in a fortnight....