Jake Sargent - 2026 Season and Training for the National 12 Hour Time Trial
Coming into 2026 Matt and I only really had one goal. It wasn’t to win or break any records, it was to just get back in the swing of things after undergoing shoulder surgery at the beginning of the year. I’d been plagued with an unstable shoulder ever since a crash in 2021, regularly dislocating it trying to get into my skin suit and then racing key events having just relocated it. It was only when I sneezed while driving and it popped out that I decided to finally do something about it. I was operated on 31st December and was immediately sidelined for 3 weeks completely off the bike. I’d never had so long off the bike and the thought of losing my 430 week Strava streak was terrifying.
Matt has assured me I was going to be fine. We’d spent the months prior building up a great base fitness, making the most of the Christmas holiday to really ramp it up and get the hours in. The surgery went well and I spent the next two months in a sling. I was allowed to return to turbo training after 3 weeks, once the stitches were out. I absolutely hate riding the turbo but it was a means to an end and Matt made sure the plan was manageable. We got into a good routine and the weeks passed quickly, before I knew it was March and my physio had given me the all clear to ride outside again. It was business as usual after that, daily commutes to work and long rides / races at the weekend.
I don’t train on my TT bike as much as I’d like. As most of my training is on my commute, through towns with a bag on my back, riding the TT bike here just isn’t possible. But my commute is by no means bad news for my training. I love my rides to and from work and I believe they are a key part to my success in the longer events. I will often do an hour of zone 2 in the morning and the key training session on my way home, fatigued after a day on my feet and the morning's ride. I’ve been doing this daily for the last 6 years and I feel the consistency gives me the edge in longer events. With all that in mind Matt and I planned to use the longer TT events on the calendar as preparation for the 12 hour, along with a few key TT bike sessions on the weekends when time allowed. In the leadup I raced 4 50mile TTs, including one after work, and 2 100mile TTs. I PB’d in that final 100mile event, knocking over 3 minutes off my previous best, and with a power PB too I knew I was ready for the 12 hour.
Everyone I’ve spoken to knows I absolutely love this race and my experience at this year's event only reinforced that. I’d been looking forward to this race for months and as soon as I knew the nationals this year would be on Welsh roads that I know so well I truly believed we could do something special. Something that has been a dream of mine ever since covering 317miles on my first attempt back in 2024. I made sure I knew every inch of the course, racing 25, 50 and 100miles here in the months leading up, I knew exactly where to put every single watt.
My plan for the race was simple, start hard and hold on. I knew any drop in power later in the race would be offset by the course speeding up as the temperature and traffic increased and making it through the 90mile morning circuit above 27mph gave me immense hope as we moved onto the much quicker afternoon circuit. I spent the next 5.5 hours lapping at 28.5mph increasing the average speed to 27.9mph and keeping the average power above 250w. It wasn’t all plain sailing though. I find I go through waves of feeling amazing and then wanting to pack it all and hours 7 - 8 are usually the hardest as it transitions from a long day on the bike to something much more ridiculous. These low spots were always remedied seeing friendly faces on the side of the road cheering me on! 9 hours came and went and I was onto the finishing circuit. It was only 15 miles which meant I would see my support crew every 30min or so. I find these shorter circuits help the time pass quicker and knowing I could have as much food and water as I needed gives you the confidence to push harder in those final hours. I knew I was on the home straight.
The 12 hour is a mental game more than anything else and I find keeping your mind occupied is a great way to distract from the amount of time left. The first thing that keeps me busy is, what I call, my internal radio. It turns itself on after a few hours or so and will keep playing until the end. I never know what tracks are going to start playing and this year it was Christmas songs, of all things! I’ve tried to get some songs stuck in my head on the drive over but they never stay. The next biggest thing for me is knowing where familiar faces on the course will be and counting down the miles until you pass them. I can easily break up an hour-long circuit by waving at all the marshalls, my friends and supporters. Finally it’s trying to work out what distance I might achieve. This usually happens in the last few hours when my average speed is pretty much set. I’m not sure my maths is ever quite right but soon enough I had reached 320miles and still had half an hour to go. I’d worked out I only needed to average 10mph to break the record and this really spurred me on. I charged down the dual carriageway at 30mph, sprinted up the hills and made every second count. 12 hours came and I passed the final few times keepers left on the course and brought the bike to a stop 12 hours and 5 minutes after I started, 333.54miles covered. A new competition record!
I cannot thank Matt enough for the work he’s put in this year. Riding with one arm in a sling back in February felt like a million miles from where we needed to be, unsure of how my shoulder would even tolerate the TT position, it was clear we had work to do. He guided me through the highs and lows of it all and helped me produce my best ever physiological performance in just over 6 months.
Fuelling this ride was easy, I know what works for me and I stick to it. 100g of OTE Super Gel carbs per hour with 500ml of water with electrolytes to wash it down. I seem to have been gifted with some crazy durable stomach that can tolerate 1.2kg of sugar over the space of 12 hours and I made full use of that, topping it up with a few carefully timed caffeine gels throughout the day to give me a boost when my legs started to tire.
One of the biggest aspects to a 12 hour time trial is remaining comfortable. A small niggle or doubt can play on your mind all day and that loss of focus can lose you the race. My Nopinz Hypersonic kit once again proved why it is the best in the business. I do all of my training in Hypersonic jersey and bib shorts and have done many 6+ hour training sessions in them. I remained totally comfortable throughout those rides so when it came to race day I had total confidence that it wasn’t going to cause me any issues. My Hypersonic MK2 overshoes stayed perfectly in place throughout and the SpeedPockets kept my arm numbers neatly in place so they weren’t flapping in the wind, losing me valuable watts! I didn’t make any position adjustments to make my bike to make it more comfortable just for the 12. I’d visited Drag2Zero in the wind tunnel at the beginning of this year to test some kit and position adjustments ahead of the 2026 season. All the changes we made were with the 12 hour and comfort in mind. My setup remained just as comfortable, but substantially quicker!
Thanks again to everyone who played a part in this success and a special thanks to my crew and those who came out to support me.
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