Rider Report – Silver for Bottrill

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Matt Bottrill of Drag2Zero reports on winning a Silver medal at the World Amateur Time Trial Championships

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Rider Report – Silver for Bottrill

Matt writes … After the Men’s National 10 I’ve hardly had time to recover and I was off to Denmark to take part in the amateur worlds.

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I’d won the selection race back in June, at the Tour Of Cambridge and this was always going to be my major goal of the season to try and add a Rainbow jersey to my collection of National medals.

It was clear from the start it was going to be an epic journey with a five hour delay at Amsterdam airport. Next came the lost bag-for Peter Lavine​, who I’d taken along for company and support.

So tired from the flight, we did not arrive to the hotel until 1am where we just crashed down straight away.

The following morning I took my bike out the bike bag to find the rear mech-smashed off and the front chainring bent. So straight away it was looking like I was not even going to make the start!

But there where loads of Brits over there and I managed to meet Keith Dawling, who offered me the loan of his bike, for the race. With no training for two days, I went for a ride to get a few miles in and to see if it would be possible to ride and it felt fine.

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But we then made a call to David Ward​ @giantuk, who called in loads of favours from lots of different reps from Giant Europe. A plan was put in place to get some spare parts the following day. But then we fell lucky and met Mike Kudson, who put us in touch with a few shops and we managed to find are way to Giant-Stall Silkebourg.

And that’s when our luck changed. Kasper Bentsen Nielsen , did everything possible to put the bike back on the road. Still amazed he managed to get that chainring to work!

So 250 miles of driving and we where back.

Onto the race itself, I felt great and produced one of my best time trials of all time. I guess the build up of everything just hit me! I had no idea what to expect with the field but was amazed with the quality.

The course covered 11.4 miles and was really rolling for the first two miles which were uphill! My start time came at 5:40 and I set off on the mission of trying to win the Gold. I felt great from the start and was soon hitting over 400 watts which was a clear sign my form was good.

Over the first climb, I was into 2nd place, and I felt strong. We started at 30 second intervals and with the long straights I could see my 30 sec rider Andreas Schweizer who was up on me but I also knew I was going really well.

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Catching a number of riders, after 5 miles, we turned a sharpe left onto the most technical and demanding part of the circuit and again I was able to lay the power down. So with just four miles to go, we had one final steep climb where I gave it everything I had to the top.

I knew I was was on for a good ride and into the finish I descended down the hill from the start where I was hitting speeds of over 45mph so you can imagine the steepness. The race was really twisty for the run in and I gave it everything all the way to the line to stop the clock in 25:17 which would put me into 2nd in my age group and 3rd overall.

I really wanted the Gold and of course I was disappointed not to get it. But this was the best time trial I’d ridden in 2014 and I just could not have gone any harder. I was well beaten by the other two riders and would have needed an extra 30 watts to have won and even at the best I’ve been, I would not find that kind of power. But this really top’s off one amazing career of cycling.

I’m probably going to race next weekend at the CTT series final round which will cap the year off for me. But then it’s the world of triathlon. I’ve no idea if I will ever make the grade at 70.3, but you know what I’m going to try.

People can say what they like of my transition, but I want to learn how to push myself and learn from triathlon so I can then pass this onto the riders I coach. I reached every goal I ever set in the UK, National champion at every distance from 10-100 miles, over 50 National championships medals from silver to golds, competition record holder for 25 & 50 miles (TEAM 10, 25), 500 race wins including a Premier Calender win.

Under 23 National road race champion and I represented Great Britain/ World class performance team on 31 occasions so I feel I’ve reached the point where its time to see what else I can add to my palmeres.

There’s so many ideas we have planned for the future and my journey is no way finished. Time Trialling will always be part of me, and I will still ride a few but the goal for me is to make the transition into Triathlon. I will start this on October 28th-29th with my first swim course with Swim-Smooth.

I’m working with some amazing people that are at the top of there game. So will be doing everything I can to make the grade.

Finally a massive thanks to my wonderful wife Kate Bottrill​, for letting me go to Denmark, Pete Lavine for all the driving. Bob Tobin​, for all the support and everyone I managed to meet over in Denmark. Really was a memory I will never forget.

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