Stage 4 : State TT Champs.


My rest day went pretty well and I was ready for the next stage, a 40 kilometer time trial in Saint Peter. The racing started at 8 am, so I had to get up at 5 to get there in time. Unfortunately, the race started like an hour late which is kind of a bummer since I was up and there and ready to go, but that extra hour of sleep would have been nice. Road races never seem to start on time, where as mountain bike races never start a minute late. I guess most of that has to do with racing on open roads, but it's still frustrating. Once I started warming up my front wheel sprung a leak and started spraying me with the sealant I used to fix it on Wednesday. I knew I should have changed that tubular, but I have been so busy I didn't really have time. In the end I had to ride my aluminum wheel, which isn't nearly as cool, but is still pretty fast. I didn't really know how to judge my effort today since I've never done a TT over 20 minutes long. I started off kind of easy, but then cranked it up to about 35 mph and was holding it steady for a while. I really felt like I was going to throw down a sick time. Then I got to the turn around and I realized why I was going so fast. There was an awful headwind. I leveled off about about 24-25 mph and felt like I was going as hard as I could to keep my cranks turning. I felt ok, but I just couldn't get on top of a big gear. I finished strong and was pretty happy with my effort. Unfortunately, there were 4 other guys with better efforts than mine. Ian killed me by 2 minutes to take the win. Casper, Paulson and Sedgewick also placed better than me, so adding that up, I guess I was fifth. Bummer. Those guys are all great riders and time trialist's though, so it hurts a little less, and makes me more motivated for the next one. I really need to get a disc wheel and and aero helmet, oh, and to fix my front Aeleous wheel. That could help my time a bit into those strong winds. But even so I don't think I could have touched Ian's time today. Good riding yo... I do have some constructive criticism for these TT's though, with the exception of the Black Dog I did, the results take way to long to get posted. In a race when you need to see the results to know how you did, they really need to get those things up ASAP. I was fiddling with Excel and I made a spreadsheet in 5 minutes that would calculate results in real time. Meaning, once you put a rider's bib #, name and start time, all you have to do is record the finish time, it will automatically calculate the riders actual time and sort times from low to high. Which means the second the final rider crosses the line, results are done! So, anyway, I'd be willing to send it to anyone who would use it. I'd like to be part of the solution, rather than just someone who complains...

Tomorrow, My Own Personal Stage Race concludes with the Capitol Crit. Looks like I'm sitting pretty in the GC with first overall. Seeing as how no one else did Buck Hill. I hear first prize is something like a really good night of sleep, so hopefully I can cash in on that. I just hope it doesn't take me too long to calculate the results...

-Photo from skinnyski.com , Black Dog TT, Stage 2


Posted: Sat - June 3, 2006 at 04:44 PM          

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