There’s an old adage in triathlon that says don’t try any kit for the first time in a race but when I received a brand new Planet X Exocet time trial bike the day before an event, I couldn’t resist.

Not only was this a new bike, it was the first time I’d ridden with a time trial set up. Following a bike fitting session with Andy Sexton of Bike Science, the riding position was radically different to anything I’d ever tried before. The saddle was about 4cm higher than my road bike and so far forward I thought I would fall over the front. The absence of drop handlebars left me feeling dangerously exposed with far too little to hold on to.

My first impression on leaving transition was, “help! I’m a long way off the ground.” I struggled to slip my feet into my shoes and managed to trap my toes between the pedals and the road and removed a good portion of a toe nail. Obviously I should have practised the running mount technique in advance but I’d had no time. I hadn’t expected it to be so different to the road bike.

Still, I had my feet secure by the first corner, which I took cautiously. The high riding position seemed precariously unstable. The second turning, a 360 degree loop around a roundabout, was equally wobbly.

After that the road straightened out. I settled onto the aero bars, flicked through the gears and turned up the power. Suddenly I realised I was riding something very fast. In contrast to perching on the bullhorns, riding on the aero bars felt comfortably and secure. Effort translated directly into speed. Before long I was overhauling the people who’d gone past me on the first corners and started overtaking the tail-enders of the wave in front.

I’d heard time-trial bikes lost much of their advantage on hills, but inclines didn’t seem to phase the Exocet. I simply dropped down a few gears and kept pedalling, catching up again with a rider who’d recently past me on the flat. Coming down the other side only fear kept me from testing the bike’s limits but I’m sure a few more hours in the saddle will improve my confidence to handle corners and descents (or both together). Even the short time on the bike during the race improved my confidence so that by the end I was able to take corners significantly faster than at the beginning. The limits were more in my mind than in the handling of the bike.

Towards the latter half of the ride I began to truly appreciate why you shouldn’t experiment with radical riding positions in races. My lower back and neck grew stiff, my backside went numb and my legs felt overstretched. Consequently my pace dropped and I lost a couple of positions. The last few kilometres seemed to take forever.

Nevertheless, checking my watch coming into transition I saw I’d completed the 41.5km course in roughly the same time I would have done on the road bike, if not a little quicker. Given the novelty of the riding position and bike set-up this seems like a positive result. I’m sure the Exocet will cut larger chunks out of my bike split as I get used to its handling and aggressive time trial set up.

Personally, I think Planet X Exocet offers excellent value for money and competes on equal terms with bikes costing significantly more. I no longer felt disadvantaged by my bike. I also enjoyed the personal attention of a bike fit and then having the bike assembled to my requirements. These removed, for example, some of the worry over which frame size to choose.

One thing that did cause me some anxiety was the need to cut off a couple of centimetres from the bottom of the seat post in order to set the saddle to the right height. In fact, it horrified me attack my new bike with a hacksaw, but it had to be done.

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