Spindata is incredibly welcome in providing both a performance benchmark and an incentive. It gives a really good indicator of how you've performed in an event relative to the field, whatever the conditions: you can look at a disappointing time but then see that you've done relatively well.

The ranking and categories are a genuine incentive. I'm bizarrely pround of being a "B cat" in my mid-60s, and am prepared to fight to keep that.

Knowing who is ranked around you and is expected to place around the same part of the field is also motivating. It has helped me meet new people and put names to faces, which makes TTs a more rewarding experience.

As someone who loves looking at numbers, be it my mediocre power data or scrutinising result sheets looking to see how I think I could have done in an event I didn’t even ride, I really took to Spindata.

I started riding open TTs regularly in 2019. My target in that first race was to ride under 25 minutes and not to get caught for 7 minutes by the scratch rider – this should give you an idea of my ability levels at the time. When I discovered Spindata I immediately saw it as something that I could use to monitor and track my progress. Being able to confirm that I had ridden a good ride (or indeed a bad one) was really useful, and the motivation of moving up the rankings was great.

I started off as a D4 and am now at a C1 – my target being to get into the B group. Back in September 2020 I felt disheartened not riding a PB on the same fast course on which I rode my PB the year before, despite doing what I felt was a much better ride. Being able to assess my ride against my peers and realise that I had performed far better than the year previously when I rode my PB was a big motivator. It really helps to drum home that your finishing position is a much better indication of how well you rode than getting a PB because the weather was favourable.