But motivation and strategy weren’t the only reasons for my poorer perfromance in the event (even though I’d say that were the most important.

The bike I have on the Tacx Neo trainer is my old steel time trial bike. It’s been there since I bought the Neo in 2016, and it is slowly but steadily changing from steel to iron oxide. As part of the ongoing corrosion issue, I occasionally have gear problems, either due to corrosion in the gear mechs or of the gear cables where they pass through cable guides on the frame. So here’s the excuse: I couldn’t reliably get the gear I wanted - in fact in the last few minutes waiting for the start, I jumped off the bike to try and ‘persuade’ it to sit in the desired gear!

I always say that pinning a number on your back always lifts your game in a time trial. But I find it a bit difficult to get in the mood when it’s a virtual time trial.

One aspect that is the same as with a real life time trial is watching the elapsed time tick by (seemingly increasingly fast!) as you approach the finish line…

I went 4 seconds faster than last week, with a marginally higher average power. I really need to work on pacing in virtual time trials.

I went 4 seconds faster than last week, with a marginally higher average power. I really need to work on pacing in virtual time trials.