It was another learning experience. There were some really competitive guys out
there with the full on TT rigs, speed suits etc. I finished 3rd in Cat4/5 with only 18 seconds
between me and first. I would have
finished second in my age group and I finished ahead of all Cat 3, but one
guy. I woke up at 4:00am and was amped
up for the race. I looked outside and
saw that it was pretty wet. Since it
wasn't raining and the clouds were breaking up, I was all in for the race. After training, I would have raced in a
downpour if it was still going on. The
temp was pretty decent and once I got to R N R the sun started to shine
periodically. Before checking in, I actually drove up to Cook's Corner to park
and check out the turn coming out of the tunnel once more. When I parked and started to unload my bike,
a Sons of Anarchy dude asked me what I was doing. I said I needed about 5 minutes to ride down
to the tunnel to check it out for the race.
He said that was no "F" ing excuse and that my truck was going
to be towed. Keep in mind, the parking
area was completely empty and Cooks wasn't even open yet. I thanked him for his hospitality, told him
that I will probably never be going there again (actually I have been there
several times to eat, drink and listen to music), packed up my bike and headed to check
in. Needless to say, I was a bit pissed
off at this point. I decided to use that
for motivation along with the 3 cups of coffee and the natural adrenaline that
I get from racing. I cranked up the
AC/DC("Spoilin' for a Fight" was one of the songs along with Hells Bells), checked in and then went to the start. I had about 20 minutes of up and down the
bike path for a good warm up. My start
time was at 9:19 so after a bunch of warm up efforts I headed to the
start. The climb from the bike path to
the peak was pretty brutal in TT mode.
It was a constant grind. I caught
the first guy ahead of me at Cooks. I
stayed mainly on the aero bars for all but a very short distance of the
climb. I started to weigh whether I
should stay on the big ring or drop to the 39.
I decided to grind it on the big ring.
I caught the next rider at the peak of the climb and blew by her at the
start of the descent. Much of the rest
of the ride was just trying to get enough oxygen and keep the speed up. I had to pass several casual riders, but
fortunately traffic was light and there was nothing to slow me down. It felt like I was flying. I went as hard as I could for the last mile
and it took all that I had to not collapse at the finish. On the ride back I
saw a guy sitting at the top on of the climb waiting. I asked if he was ok and he said ya so I kept
going. My wife Pam talked to the guy to
see if he needed a ride, but he was waiting for someone. He said that he got a flat on the fast
downhill and his bike took off into the oncoming traffic lane. Fortunately, there were no cars coming. He was bit shaken though. Thank God he was ok!
Here are the results:
Overall I was pleased with the power output of 369
watts. It was 10 more watts than the
Great Park TT. Even though I dropped my
handle bars lower than the GP TT, I'm going to take Noah's advice and drop them
all the way down next time. Pam said I
was up much higher than the other top guys.
Better aerodynamics may have made up those 18 secs. I'm also looking forward to that speedsuit
coming in.
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