"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Hinckley TT

-First TT of the year
-Quite hilly. 5 mile loop, 2 laps
-Lots of TT specific rigs with 808s and 909s
-I had my crit bike sans bottle cages, aero helmet and a skinsuit to my aid
-4 Team Spin riders present (including me)
-25 riders
-Finished 8th, with a 24:42. The winner had a mid 22m time, and is the best TTer in the state
-Beat my teammates


I wasn't smooth at all. I practically took everything I knew about TT's and said "F*ck that!". I went too fast on the first lap and tried to monster up the hills instead of keeping a smooth pedal stroke. It took me about 10 minutes to even out my breathing.
The second lap was better. My breathing was completely evened out, and I was moving faster and with less effort and wasted movement than the first. If my first lap was the same as my second, I'd have been in the low 24's.
The finish line was 200m after the crest of a 4-500m 7% grade hill. I started my sprint at the base of the climb and didn't stop until I threw the bike across the line. That took all of my energy.

So next week, I'll have my carbon 50mm's, aerobars, and maybe shoe covers.

Let the accessorizing (how would that be spelled? too tired) begin!

Nice job (except for throwing everything out the window). :)

Yeah, I've been meaning to accessorize for a while now, but I'm putting the money into a custom pursuit frame.
Dr, have you ever heard of the trick to soft-pedal on every 10th pedal stroke? Care to shine any light on it?

Who is the best time triallist in Ohio?

I was at last night's Hinkley TT aslo. I did the race last week and still got caught-up in trying to muscle the first hill. That hill is deceiving! I'm not sure if it's the 45mph decent at the start that gets me going, but, getting my HR to within 5 beats of max is not the place to be 2:00 into the race. I rode the 2nd lap smarter but still did not go the the small chain ring on the big hill even though I planned to do that before the race. My time was better than last week's but at 29:25 its pretty slow, even for a 55yr old. I just rode my plain old road bike with no aero help except I left the gloves home (based on my stats. riding without gloves made a 43 second improvement!). I got a kick out all those little kids with the areo helmets walking around the parking lot 45 minutes before the race. Their dad's hadn't even unloaded their bikes and they had their cool helmets on.

I was one of those dorks, except I came by myself.
I was the one in the orange/blue/white LS skinsuit on the red Cannondale.

You weren't the guy in the red jersey, were you?

I was in the Stark Velo kit and riding the red Specialized Roubaix Expert. I started around 24th.

Who is the best time triallist in Ohio?

Paul Martin won last weeks TT. My son said that he was Ohio's TT Champ. I am not sure how this is determined or if it is factual. He was second in the "2007 Ohio State TT" event in Groveport.

some of the best in the state:

paul martin, andy clarke (2007 state tt champ iirc), curtis tolson (is he ohio?), new blood: randy callahan and dan campbell were both cat 5's at the beginning o flast year ago, and could threaten for the state tt in the 1/2's this year. probably a lot more that desrved to be mentioned.

Paul Martin won last weeks TT. My son said that he was Ohio's TT Champ. I am not sure how this is determined or if it is factual. He was second in the "2007 Ohio State TT" event in Groveport.

Paul Martin routinely kicks ass in the same A race I do on Tuesday nights. He rode a couple of years for Navigators as a pro, and then decided that he needed to make money so be went to law school. Now he rides for Texas Roadhouse and still kicks ass.