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04-23-07, 06:00 AM
This past Saturday was my first time trial. This wasn't a true race, it was actually a club function for the Charleston Wheelers. Some of the people came out just to kind of ride it but about 10 - 15 of us came out to race. There were some pretty nice bikes that I hadn't seen out lately, apparently we have some triathletes in our area. One bike was particularly sweet, a Cervelo Soloist carbon with tubular 404's on it. Very sweet!
Anyway, when we first made it there at 8:30 to warm up it was 41 degrees. A little chilly. A few of us did a short warm up which resulted in me flatting. Better to flat warming up then racing I guess. Luckily I was carrying a tube so that made it nice, what made it nicer was this one had an 80 mm valve stem so I didn't have to use the zipp adaptor, very nice! I think it was the adaptor that led to the flat. I think I had way to much air in my tires but couldn't be sure because the adaptor kept giving me false readings. Anyway, we finished up the warm up and it was time to start.
The course was 7.4 miles with 1,335 feet of climbing. It started off with a 1.5 mile ride to the end of the forest which was a very slight downhill. After that you turn around and ride about 3 miles up a false flat with a couple of very small rollers before the first of two climbs. The first climb is about 1 mile, then a small downhill about 0.25 miles, a nasty false flat uphill that goes about 0.5 mile then a 1 mile climb to finish up the time trial.
My start time was 10:30 am and it had warmed up to around 65 degrees or so. Perfect! The time came and I took off. I gave it everything I had from the start and hurt surprisingly well, I was happy. On the "flats" I managed to pass two of the riders that started ahead of me but not the rider who started directly in front of me who happened to be a friend of mine that I train with. The climb came and I stood up and gave it everything I had. I was hurting and in the back of my mind I kept telling myself to take it easy, I had a mountain bike race the following day. I didn't listen!
I made it up the first climb and was feeling pretty well. Now it was time for the downhill, I just kept pedalling until I ran out of pedal. Now it was time for the false flat, holy crap that thing hurt! I felt like I was just going to fall over, I kept going. Now the final climb started. I dropped the gears and started giving it all I had. I managed to go up a couple of gears from my normal, that felt good. I was feeling pretty good about myself, next thing I knew with about 1/4 mile to go I saw my buddy in front of me, great, a rabbit to chase! I went harder, I caught him about 1/8 mile to go and passed him. I managed to put about 25 seconds on him, not too shabby I guess. Once I went around the final curve I stood up and just sprinted with about 300 yards to go and still going uphill. I'm sure it wasn't all that impressive of a sprint to the spectators but to me it felt awesome!
Once all was said and done I finished the time trial in 21:23 (minutes:seconds). I averaged over 20 mph which surprised me. The winner's time was 21:19, I got second. I am happy with that considering the winner was a cat 3, very strong and definitely in shape!
Once I finished up I had to jump in the truck and drive three hours for Sunday's mountain bike race. That report will be up shortly but since I doubt any of you will wonder over to the mtb forum I'll give you the clif note version. I managed to get my first win in the sport class after being in it for over three years! :D
Not a bad weekend!
Here's a picture from the first climb. Sorry it's not better but this was cropped from a pretty large picture.
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b148/LowCel/WheelersTimeTrial.jpg
Anyway, when we first made it there at 8:30 to warm up it was 41 degrees. A little chilly. A few of us did a short warm up which resulted in me flatting. Better to flat warming up then racing I guess. Luckily I was carrying a tube so that made it nice, what made it nicer was this one had an 80 mm valve stem so I didn't have to use the zipp adaptor, very nice! I think it was the adaptor that led to the flat. I think I had way to much air in my tires but couldn't be sure because the adaptor kept giving me false readings. Anyway, we finished up the warm up and it was time to start.
The course was 7.4 miles with 1,335 feet of climbing. It started off with a 1.5 mile ride to the end of the forest which was a very slight downhill. After that you turn around and ride about 3 miles up a false flat with a couple of very small rollers before the first of two climbs. The first climb is about 1 mile, then a small downhill about 0.25 miles, a nasty false flat uphill that goes about 0.5 mile then a 1 mile climb to finish up the time trial.
My start time was 10:30 am and it had warmed up to around 65 degrees or so. Perfect! The time came and I took off. I gave it everything I had from the start and hurt surprisingly well, I was happy. On the "flats" I managed to pass two of the riders that started ahead of me but not the rider who started directly in front of me who happened to be a friend of mine that I train with. The climb came and I stood up and gave it everything I had. I was hurting and in the back of my mind I kept telling myself to take it easy, I had a mountain bike race the following day. I didn't listen!
I made it up the first climb and was feeling pretty well. Now it was time for the downhill, I just kept pedalling until I ran out of pedal. Now it was time for the false flat, holy crap that thing hurt! I felt like I was just going to fall over, I kept going. Now the final climb started. I dropped the gears and started giving it all I had. I managed to go up a couple of gears from my normal, that felt good. I was feeling pretty good about myself, next thing I knew with about 1/4 mile to go I saw my buddy in front of me, great, a rabbit to chase! I went harder, I caught him about 1/8 mile to go and passed him. I managed to put about 25 seconds on him, not too shabby I guess. Once I went around the final curve I stood up and just sprinted with about 300 yards to go and still going uphill. I'm sure it wasn't all that impressive of a sprint to the spectators but to me it felt awesome!
Once all was said and done I finished the time trial in 21:23 (minutes:seconds). I averaged over 20 mph which surprised me. The winner's time was 21:19, I got second. I am happy with that considering the winner was a cat 3, very strong and definitely in shape!
Once I finished up I had to jump in the truck and drive three hours for Sunday's mountain bike race. That report will be up shortly but since I doubt any of you will wonder over to the mtb forum I'll give you the clif note version. I managed to get my first win in the sport class after being in it for over three years! :D
Not a bad weekend!
Here's a picture from the first climb. Sorry it's not better but this was cropped from a pretty large picture.
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b148/LowCel/WheelersTimeTrial.jpg