On Friday evening 8 riders made the journey over to the Silverstone F1 track to partake in a charity 11-mile (3 laps) road bike only team time trial. In spite of the ‘road bike only’ rules we all tried every trick in the book to get as areo as possible. Matt Kerin brought a deep front wheel that had to be measured by the organisers to ensure it wasn’t ‘too aero’ and some of us brought Kask Bambinos because they look like road helmets, right? Ruling: yes, go ahead.

After a pep talk from OUCC coach, Andrew, and a warm up we headed out to the start. The course was much more technical than first expected and there was a strong headwind in places which made closing gaps difficult. The team dropped down to 6 after 1.5 laps. With half a lap to go David Glick made a final huge pull on the front and then swung off to leave the minimum 5 riders to smash it to the line. Our final time was 22:52 which was good enough for 6th on the day.

This was our first time riding this great event (thank you Bicester Millenium CC) and we’ll definitely be back next year. With a seeded start time (so less traffic on course) and slightly more thorough preparation we are confident of being able to challenge for the top spots in 2018.