Time trial story
05-23-16, 09:32 PM
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Time trial story
The story of how Tony Darr and Nerius Landys (that's me) became the fastest tandem bicycle team at the SoCal/Nevada State Championship Time Trial in 2016.
This story began a while ago at a Fiesta Island Time Trial last year (I had brought my racing tandem) when Tony, eyes twinkling with enthusiasm, approached me with the idea that he and his wife Dianne try tandem riding. I believe that I made some kind of promise of helping him out, but I cannot remember exactly what kind of promise I made.
With a month to go before the state championship, I had been looking for a female stoker for my racing tandem. I mostly wanted to show off the machine I had built to those attending the championship. However, it soon became clear, with three weeks to go, that the cosmos did not intend this destiny for me. So I gave up on my search and assumed that I would be riding a single bike at the state championship.
Two weeks prior to the state championship I was volunteering on a Friday night, helping Ralph Elliot set up his stage and rig for the Barrio Logan Grand Prix. I had previously told Ralph that I'd be there all of Friday night to help, and all of Saturday too. However, it so happened that I realized afterwards that the Santiago Canyon Time Trial was on that same Saturday, and that this would be the last such time trial for many months. I had never done this time trial, and wanted to see the course so that I could have those months of break to think about bike optimizations for this course. On Friday night, I left my volunteering duties earlier than I otherwise would have, and told Ralph that I intended to come back Saturday afternoon after my time trial. However, I also told Ralph that I did not know if I would indeed come back, and told him that “I will do what the cosmos wants me to do”.
It was at this Saturday Santiago Canyon Time Trial two weeks prior to the May 21st championship that I bumped into Tony again, at the finish of that time trial. When I mentioned that I was looking for a stoker for the championship and asked if Tony was interested he replied “yes”, and I asked him if he was really serious. Actually we asked each other if the other was serious, and we eventually decided that there was enough seriousness to warrant participation in the States time trial. The conversation went somewhat like this: “Are you serious?” “Yes I'm serious, are you serious?” “Yes I'm serious, are you really serious?”
That same day we decided to have a practice run at Fiesta Island since it was on the way home for Tony, who lives far inland over the mountains near the border to Mexico. On the way South from Orange County on the freeway, there was substantial traffic congestion, to the point that even if we had had no plans to meet at Fiesta, my return to help out with the Barrio Logan Grand Prix would have been in jeopardy.
In addition to that Saturday afternoon's practice run, we had the Friday and Saturday of the next weekend together. Our fastest timed lap on Fiesta was 8:33 (a week prior to States), which isn't stellar. I had previously set a lap time of 8:13 with my previous stoker Patricia Murray, with whom I set the Fiesta Island mixed tandem record (20k) on November 15, 2015. I brushed off the relatively slow time as lacking experience in riding together, even though I only partially believed that reasoning myself. I wanted to keep our spirits up and I wanted to stay optimistic.
Tony and I arrived at the race course at Lake Los Angeles on Friday early afternoon prior to the race day. Our intention was to do two laps around the course. The wind was gusty that afternoon. It was so gusty in fact that we were in the presence of small dust clouds, which could be seen as brown patches on the horizon.
I brought three pairs of tandem wheels to the race. The Fiesta Island record-setting race wheels were Zipp 808 tubular rims mated to beefy Shimano hubs with all upgrades I could muster, such as Chinese ceramic ball bearings, a hollow titanium axle for 145mm dropout spacing, titanium freehub body (on an Ultegra hub), Sapim aero bladed spokes, and proprietary optimizations made to spokes and nipples to increase aerodynamics near the rim. These Zipps have 24 spokes front and rear. The tires are top-of-the-line 23mm Vittoria road tubulars. I even went as far as adhering tennis racket weights to the wheels to improve wheel balance at high speed.
The medium fast wheels were built from Kinlin XR300 clincher rims (at thirty two dollars apiece, painted white), mated to XTR hubs front and rear, 28 holes each, again with all of the upgrades I could muster (titanium tandem axle, ceramic bearings, and spoke and nipple optimizations). The tires on these white wheels were 25mm Continental clinchers.
The slowest wheels I brought were silver Velocity Aero rims mated to fairly standard and heavy hubs, 32 aero spokes front and rear. Tires were 28mm Continentals that actually inflate to a fat 30mm.
We never rode with the Zipps that weekend due to the wind. It was decided after doing the first lap on the “slowest wheels” that the white wheels could be tried. The white wheels rode well enough. It was decided to use the white wheels for the time trial, regardless of the fact that the rims were thirty two dollar alloy rims from Taiwan.
Riding with so much wind on Friday afternoon was a bit demoralizing. I had difficulty controlling the bike even with the low profile white wheels and barely rode in the time trial position that day, instead choosing to ride in the bull horns which are more stable but point my torso like a kite into the wind. We didn't really know how much wind to expect the next morning, and because of this the Zipps, which are more than 80mm deep, seemed like an unpredictable and bad choice. In addition, the roads, advertised as “good to excellent”, were in fact “fair to good”, including a mile section of severe pot holes in the middle of the road. Therefore the 23mm tires on the Zipps seemed like an especially poor choice given the combined weight of riders on a tandem bicycle. I even had doubts as to whether the 25mm tires would be fat enough for comfortable riding at high speeds over those roads.
On the next morning the wind had died down significantly. My confidence went up because of this. There was still a significant wind from the same direction, but not as substantial.
Our main competition for this day was going to be another team that also entered in the mens' 90+ category. We knew this beforehand. These riders had just earned a national age category title in a four man team time trial. This competing team seemed to be riding a very fancy “boutique” (meaning expensive and custom) tandem made especially for them, equipped with aero bars front and rear, a rear disc wheel, and a front tri-spoke carbon wheel. I believe that this competing tandem frame was made by a very respectable tandem frame builder. While some may think that my bone stock Trek T2000 tandem frame having thirty two dollar Kinlin alloy rims is no comparison to their high-end machine, the fact of the matter is that I actually spent a month and a half working on this bike full-time prior to the Fiesta Island record being set, so “home made” in my case could be interpreted to mean “very fancy and built exactly the way I wanted it, with all of the optimizations I could come up with”. In reality, the drive train, handlebar positions, and rider positions on our bike were quite optimized. Perhaps it was only the wheels that made the bike seem unworthy, but in reality those are not slow wheels either. In addition, my confidence was high considering the fact that my previous November record-setting tandem run beat a thirteen year old record that had been set by an Olympian.
The Lake Los Angeles race course consists of a square loop, plus the first leg of the square ridden twice. The first leg of six miles was a tailwind. The next three mile leg, after a right turn, was a headwind with a poorly paved road. The next six miles was a severe headwind on relatively good road. The last three miles of the loop was a tailwind, and the final six miles of the race was the first leg of tailwind.
With an hour before our race, I found a goat head thorn (also referred to as “puncture plant”) in the front tire after an early warm-up run. Tony gave me a patched spare inner tube and I fixed the problem on the white front wheel. Then, about fifteen minutes before our race the drive chain fell off the chain ring, and this problem had not happened before with any stoker on board, even after hundreds of miles of riding. I put the chain back on the chain ring after stopping. There seemed to be drama happening even before our race started. I tried to stay cool, calm and confident. Furthermore, according to Tony, one of his friends parked next to us had told him before the race to expect to get passed in the first six miles, meaning that we should hold the belief that we are no match for our competition. Tony didn't share this information with me prior to the race, and good for him for doing so.
Our start was at 8:03 in the morning. Half a minute behind us starting were the national champ brothers on boutique tandem. I made a mental note to myself to not allow us to be passed in the first six miles, even though it would have been dumb to go all-out in that section. It's smarter to save the energy for the slow parts, such as hills and headwind sections, for the sake of optimizing overall time. But, without telling Tony this, I knew that being passed early would be demoralizing and humiliating. My idea was that if we didn't get caught in the first six miles and if we put the hammer down thereafter, our chance of winning was significant.
The start went smoothly for us. We got used to the high speed right away, which was about 35 mph on that first tailwind section. Taking the sharp turn into leg two I looked back and didn't see anyone. That was a relief. We then put the hammer down.
Three miles later at turn two I looked back again. Again I could not see anyone. We continued to put the hammer down and we continued to lay down the sauce to full effect.
The tandem only has one drive chain ring – a fifty eight tooth. The cassette used was a nine speed, 12-23 tooth. The straight block portion was therefore 12-17. We spent the six miles of headwind in mostly the 17'er. I tried very hard not to shift into the 19'er because that would have been a significant gear jump, slowing us down considerably, especially factoring in Tony's preference of riding a low cadence (under 85 rpm). That section hurt bad, and seeing the power line wires marking our next turn was a huge relief. We made turn three without being passed by any other bicycle, and in the meantime we had passed a dozen or so other bicycles. I had been imagining hearing a disc wheel approaching, but that must have been some other noise muffled by my aero helmet, which covers the ears and makes sounds less distinct.
As we approached the final turn at the end of leg four, Dianne, Tony's wife, was standing there to cheer us on. As I would find out later, Dianne was counting seconds to measure time between us and our competition. She claims to have recorded approximately thirty seconds between us and our competition (and note that our competition started thirty seconds behind us, so that would have made us equal to our competition with six miles to go).
I deliberately left a little bit in my gas tank for the last six miles of tailwind, and after the final turn I let it loose, upping the cadence a bit. I gave it everything I had in the last six miles. We were mostly in the 13 tooth cog for the last six miles, I believe. The last small hill up to the finish line hurt especially. We crossed the finish line and still nobody behind us was in sight. We pulled off to a side road, got off the bike, hugged, and congratulated ourselves on what we thought was a clear win. Most of all I was happy that there were no mechanical incidents during our race, which would have caused great embarrassment to the bicycle mechanic responsible. I had also promised Dianne to place safety as top priority. We might have gone ten seconds faster overall had I cooked the corners at higher speed, but some corners had gravel and rough pavement. About two minutes after our finish Tony spotted our competition.
We had to ride six miles back to the start into a headwind. We spent more than five minutes on the side road before getting back on the bike and riding back. Back at the parking area near the start, sitting down, we saw our competition ride by after what I assumed was their six mile ride home from the finish. They complained of a flat tire situation and pointed to their wheel. I didn't really know what to make of it. First of all, why were they riding six miles home on a flat tire, and did they have the flat tire during the race. More on this later.
The results were posted and our time was in the low 48 minute range. We posted the fastest tandem time of the day by a minute and a half, out of ten or so tandem teams. The medals were being awarded, the podiums were being filled, photographs were being taken, and we were cheering on and congratulating the winners, many of them our friends. Our turn to get onto the podium was, according to the order of results, near the end of the awards ceremony.
Towards the middle of the awards ceremony rumor spread to me, via Tony, that our competition was contesting our win. I brushed this off as a joke at first, thinking that my friend Tony was pulling my leg and only testing me. I told Tony in a stern voice to have the officials come talk to me if there is a problem.
Finally, the situation became more evident when the awards presenter announced that the awards for our category were being postponed (skipped) until a dispute was settled. I still tried to stay cool because I wanted to participate in other people's awards and I didn't want to let someone else's stink affect me.
After the awards I walked over to some people volunteering at the event and the captain of our competition was standing there. He was the person instigating the dispute. I then heard him say directly that their team had passed us during the race. I insisted that no bicycle passed us during the race, which is the truth.
A short while later I walked over to an area where the top officials/referees were gathered, along with that same captain. I again heard this man state that their team had passed us during the race. This man's claim was that they “passed all the other tandems”. My truthful statement to an official was that no bicycle passed us during the race. At that point, the captain stated that it was impossible for our team to beat his team by a minute and a half. He wanted to make it clear that he was a national champion as he asked me if I knew who he was. Instead of asking him if he knew who I was, I decided to instead stick to the truth (because a question is not a statement of truth), insisting to the official that no bicycle passed us during the race. Dianne stepped in at some point and told of recording the time difference with six miles to go, and as having witnessed our competition still being behind us at that point.
The referees eventually ruled in our favor. Our awards came half an hour after they should have, after many of my friends had left, including parents of juniors who train at a velodrome from which I have been shunned away in recent months because of my outspokenness pertaining to issues of injustice and unethical conduct in sport. There were few left to cheer us for our win. Furthermore, the brothers who had been defeated didn't appear on the podium for second place, choosing instead to leave the scene. Third place did appear on the podium. I received no apology from these defeated brothers for having caused the needless drama, and I received no congratulation from these brothers for our win. Furthermore, because of the misrepresentation of truth concerning the claim that their tandem passed our tandem during the race, I decided to brush off any claim by that team as potentially fictitious, including the claim that they had a flat tire. I feel insulted by the possibility that resentment of getting beaten drove these brothers to retaliate in the form of a dispute, preventing us from experiencing victory in front of a crowd. The more sportsmanlike action would have been to congratulate us on our win, or at least to apologize after realizing their mistake.
This story began a while ago at a Fiesta Island Time Trial last year (I had brought my racing tandem) when Tony, eyes twinkling with enthusiasm, approached me with the idea that he and his wife Dianne try tandem riding. I believe that I made some kind of promise of helping him out, but I cannot remember exactly what kind of promise I made.
With a month to go before the state championship, I had been looking for a female stoker for my racing tandem. I mostly wanted to show off the machine I had built to those attending the championship. However, it soon became clear, with three weeks to go, that the cosmos did not intend this destiny for me. So I gave up on my search and assumed that I would be riding a single bike at the state championship.
Two weeks prior to the state championship I was volunteering on a Friday night, helping Ralph Elliot set up his stage and rig for the Barrio Logan Grand Prix. I had previously told Ralph that I'd be there all of Friday night to help, and all of Saturday too. However, it so happened that I realized afterwards that the Santiago Canyon Time Trial was on that same Saturday, and that this would be the last such time trial for many months. I had never done this time trial, and wanted to see the course so that I could have those months of break to think about bike optimizations for this course. On Friday night, I left my volunteering duties earlier than I otherwise would have, and told Ralph that I intended to come back Saturday afternoon after my time trial. However, I also told Ralph that I did not know if I would indeed come back, and told him that “I will do what the cosmos wants me to do”.
It was at this Saturday Santiago Canyon Time Trial two weeks prior to the May 21st championship that I bumped into Tony again, at the finish of that time trial. When I mentioned that I was looking for a stoker for the championship and asked if Tony was interested he replied “yes”, and I asked him if he was really serious. Actually we asked each other if the other was serious, and we eventually decided that there was enough seriousness to warrant participation in the States time trial. The conversation went somewhat like this: “Are you serious?” “Yes I'm serious, are you serious?” “Yes I'm serious, are you really serious?”
That same day we decided to have a practice run at Fiesta Island since it was on the way home for Tony, who lives far inland over the mountains near the border to Mexico. On the way South from Orange County on the freeway, there was substantial traffic congestion, to the point that even if we had had no plans to meet at Fiesta, my return to help out with the Barrio Logan Grand Prix would have been in jeopardy.
In addition to that Saturday afternoon's practice run, we had the Friday and Saturday of the next weekend together. Our fastest timed lap on Fiesta was 8:33 (a week prior to States), which isn't stellar. I had previously set a lap time of 8:13 with my previous stoker Patricia Murray, with whom I set the Fiesta Island mixed tandem record (20k) on November 15, 2015. I brushed off the relatively slow time as lacking experience in riding together, even though I only partially believed that reasoning myself. I wanted to keep our spirits up and I wanted to stay optimistic.
Tony and I arrived at the race course at Lake Los Angeles on Friday early afternoon prior to the race day. Our intention was to do two laps around the course. The wind was gusty that afternoon. It was so gusty in fact that we were in the presence of small dust clouds, which could be seen as brown patches on the horizon.
I brought three pairs of tandem wheels to the race. The Fiesta Island record-setting race wheels were Zipp 808 tubular rims mated to beefy Shimano hubs with all upgrades I could muster, such as Chinese ceramic ball bearings, a hollow titanium axle for 145mm dropout spacing, titanium freehub body (on an Ultegra hub), Sapim aero bladed spokes, and proprietary optimizations made to spokes and nipples to increase aerodynamics near the rim. These Zipps have 24 spokes front and rear. The tires are top-of-the-line 23mm Vittoria road tubulars. I even went as far as adhering tennis racket weights to the wheels to improve wheel balance at high speed.
The medium fast wheels were built from Kinlin XR300 clincher rims (at thirty two dollars apiece, painted white), mated to XTR hubs front and rear, 28 holes each, again with all of the upgrades I could muster (titanium tandem axle, ceramic bearings, and spoke and nipple optimizations). The tires on these white wheels were 25mm Continental clinchers.
The slowest wheels I brought were silver Velocity Aero rims mated to fairly standard and heavy hubs, 32 aero spokes front and rear. Tires were 28mm Continentals that actually inflate to a fat 30mm.
We never rode with the Zipps that weekend due to the wind. It was decided after doing the first lap on the “slowest wheels” that the white wheels could be tried. The white wheels rode well enough. It was decided to use the white wheels for the time trial, regardless of the fact that the rims were thirty two dollar alloy rims from Taiwan.
Riding with so much wind on Friday afternoon was a bit demoralizing. I had difficulty controlling the bike even with the low profile white wheels and barely rode in the time trial position that day, instead choosing to ride in the bull horns which are more stable but point my torso like a kite into the wind. We didn't really know how much wind to expect the next morning, and because of this the Zipps, which are more than 80mm deep, seemed like an unpredictable and bad choice. In addition, the roads, advertised as “good to excellent”, were in fact “fair to good”, including a mile section of severe pot holes in the middle of the road. Therefore the 23mm tires on the Zipps seemed like an especially poor choice given the combined weight of riders on a tandem bicycle. I even had doubts as to whether the 25mm tires would be fat enough for comfortable riding at high speeds over those roads.
On the next morning the wind had died down significantly. My confidence went up because of this. There was still a significant wind from the same direction, but not as substantial.
Our main competition for this day was going to be another team that also entered in the mens' 90+ category. We knew this beforehand. These riders had just earned a national age category title in a four man team time trial. This competing team seemed to be riding a very fancy “boutique” (meaning expensive and custom) tandem made especially for them, equipped with aero bars front and rear, a rear disc wheel, and a front tri-spoke carbon wheel. I believe that this competing tandem frame was made by a very respectable tandem frame builder. While some may think that my bone stock Trek T2000 tandem frame having thirty two dollar Kinlin alloy rims is no comparison to their high-end machine, the fact of the matter is that I actually spent a month and a half working on this bike full-time prior to the Fiesta Island record being set, so “home made” in my case could be interpreted to mean “very fancy and built exactly the way I wanted it, with all of the optimizations I could come up with”. In reality, the drive train, handlebar positions, and rider positions on our bike were quite optimized. Perhaps it was only the wheels that made the bike seem unworthy, but in reality those are not slow wheels either. In addition, my confidence was high considering the fact that my previous November record-setting tandem run beat a thirteen year old record that had been set by an Olympian.
The Lake Los Angeles race course consists of a square loop, plus the first leg of the square ridden twice. The first leg of six miles was a tailwind. The next three mile leg, after a right turn, was a headwind with a poorly paved road. The next six miles was a severe headwind on relatively good road. The last three miles of the loop was a tailwind, and the final six miles of the race was the first leg of tailwind.
With an hour before our race, I found a goat head thorn (also referred to as “puncture plant”) in the front tire after an early warm-up run. Tony gave me a patched spare inner tube and I fixed the problem on the white front wheel. Then, about fifteen minutes before our race the drive chain fell off the chain ring, and this problem had not happened before with any stoker on board, even after hundreds of miles of riding. I put the chain back on the chain ring after stopping. There seemed to be drama happening even before our race started. I tried to stay cool, calm and confident. Furthermore, according to Tony, one of his friends parked next to us had told him before the race to expect to get passed in the first six miles, meaning that we should hold the belief that we are no match for our competition. Tony didn't share this information with me prior to the race, and good for him for doing so.
Our start was at 8:03 in the morning. Half a minute behind us starting were the national champ brothers on boutique tandem. I made a mental note to myself to not allow us to be passed in the first six miles, even though it would have been dumb to go all-out in that section. It's smarter to save the energy for the slow parts, such as hills and headwind sections, for the sake of optimizing overall time. But, without telling Tony this, I knew that being passed early would be demoralizing and humiliating. My idea was that if we didn't get caught in the first six miles and if we put the hammer down thereafter, our chance of winning was significant.
The start went smoothly for us. We got used to the high speed right away, which was about 35 mph on that first tailwind section. Taking the sharp turn into leg two I looked back and didn't see anyone. That was a relief. We then put the hammer down.
Three miles later at turn two I looked back again. Again I could not see anyone. We continued to put the hammer down and we continued to lay down the sauce to full effect.
The tandem only has one drive chain ring – a fifty eight tooth. The cassette used was a nine speed, 12-23 tooth. The straight block portion was therefore 12-17. We spent the six miles of headwind in mostly the 17'er. I tried very hard not to shift into the 19'er because that would have been a significant gear jump, slowing us down considerably, especially factoring in Tony's preference of riding a low cadence (under 85 rpm). That section hurt bad, and seeing the power line wires marking our next turn was a huge relief. We made turn three without being passed by any other bicycle, and in the meantime we had passed a dozen or so other bicycles. I had been imagining hearing a disc wheel approaching, but that must have been some other noise muffled by my aero helmet, which covers the ears and makes sounds less distinct.
As we approached the final turn at the end of leg four, Dianne, Tony's wife, was standing there to cheer us on. As I would find out later, Dianne was counting seconds to measure time between us and our competition. She claims to have recorded approximately thirty seconds between us and our competition (and note that our competition started thirty seconds behind us, so that would have made us equal to our competition with six miles to go).
I deliberately left a little bit in my gas tank for the last six miles of tailwind, and after the final turn I let it loose, upping the cadence a bit. I gave it everything I had in the last six miles. We were mostly in the 13 tooth cog for the last six miles, I believe. The last small hill up to the finish line hurt especially. We crossed the finish line and still nobody behind us was in sight. We pulled off to a side road, got off the bike, hugged, and congratulated ourselves on what we thought was a clear win. Most of all I was happy that there were no mechanical incidents during our race, which would have caused great embarrassment to the bicycle mechanic responsible. I had also promised Dianne to place safety as top priority. We might have gone ten seconds faster overall had I cooked the corners at higher speed, but some corners had gravel and rough pavement. About two minutes after our finish Tony spotted our competition.
We had to ride six miles back to the start into a headwind. We spent more than five minutes on the side road before getting back on the bike and riding back. Back at the parking area near the start, sitting down, we saw our competition ride by after what I assumed was their six mile ride home from the finish. They complained of a flat tire situation and pointed to their wheel. I didn't really know what to make of it. First of all, why were they riding six miles home on a flat tire, and did they have the flat tire during the race. More on this later.
The results were posted and our time was in the low 48 minute range. We posted the fastest tandem time of the day by a minute and a half, out of ten or so tandem teams. The medals were being awarded, the podiums were being filled, photographs were being taken, and we were cheering on and congratulating the winners, many of them our friends. Our turn to get onto the podium was, according to the order of results, near the end of the awards ceremony.
Towards the middle of the awards ceremony rumor spread to me, via Tony, that our competition was contesting our win. I brushed this off as a joke at first, thinking that my friend Tony was pulling my leg and only testing me. I told Tony in a stern voice to have the officials come talk to me if there is a problem.
Finally, the situation became more evident when the awards presenter announced that the awards for our category were being postponed (skipped) until a dispute was settled. I still tried to stay cool because I wanted to participate in other people's awards and I didn't want to let someone else's stink affect me.
After the awards I walked over to some people volunteering at the event and the captain of our competition was standing there. He was the person instigating the dispute. I then heard him say directly that their team had passed us during the race. I insisted that no bicycle passed us during the race, which is the truth.
A short while later I walked over to an area where the top officials/referees were gathered, along with that same captain. I again heard this man state that their team had passed us during the race. This man's claim was that they “passed all the other tandems”. My truthful statement to an official was that no bicycle passed us during the race. At that point, the captain stated that it was impossible for our team to beat his team by a minute and a half. He wanted to make it clear that he was a national champion as he asked me if I knew who he was. Instead of asking him if he knew who I was, I decided to instead stick to the truth (because a question is not a statement of truth), insisting to the official that no bicycle passed us during the race. Dianne stepped in at some point and told of recording the time difference with six miles to go, and as having witnessed our competition still being behind us at that point.
The referees eventually ruled in our favor. Our awards came half an hour after they should have, after many of my friends had left, including parents of juniors who train at a velodrome from which I have been shunned away in recent months because of my outspokenness pertaining to issues of injustice and unethical conduct in sport. There were few left to cheer us for our win. Furthermore, the brothers who had been defeated didn't appear on the podium for second place, choosing instead to leave the scene. Third place did appear on the podium. I received no apology from these defeated brothers for having caused the needless drama, and I received no congratulation from these brothers for our win. Furthermore, because of the misrepresentation of truth concerning the claim that their tandem passed our tandem during the race, I decided to brush off any claim by that team as potentially fictitious, including the claim that they had a flat tire. I feel insulted by the possibility that resentment of getting beaten drove these brothers to retaliate in the form of a dispute, preventing us from experiencing victory in front of a crowd. The more sportsmanlike action would have been to congratulate us on our win, or at least to apologize after realizing their mistake.
Last edited by Rambetter; 05-24-16 at 09:24 PM. Reason: some details that were incorrect have been corrected after Tony read the essay
05-23-16, 10:18 PM
#2
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Wow, that was an exciting story! I have never done a time trial, but it sounds like it was a great time. That's really unfortunate about the other team being poor sports though. :-/
05-24-16, 08:04 AM
#3
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didn't they have timing chips?
__________________
You could fall off a cliff and die.
You could get lost and die.
You could hit a tree and die.
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You could fall off a cliff and die.
You could get lost and die.
You could hit a tree and die.
OR YOU COULD STAY HOME AND FALL OFF THE COUCH AND DIE.
05-24-16, 09:52 AM
#4
Clipless in Coeur d'Alene
Congrads on the win!
You didn't have any kind of GPS or computer on the bike to record your race? That would be of some factual proof of course. Kind of a bizarre situation and apparently poorly officiated.
I once set a TT course record, only to have it recinded because I had (so the claim goes) an unfair advantage of chasing down and passing a 4-man TTT who were on the opposite side of the road. They then upped their pace to dual with me for a bit before they blew up and disappeared. The TT ref just shrugged and said I didn't officially get the record because of the perceived advantage. My time did stick for that event though. Go figure :/
BTW: Using the “boutique” term to describe "expensive and custom" bikes and/or equipment is incorrect. Rather, "boutique" = off the shelf, non-custom. ie: wheels such as Rolf Prima Tandem or Spinergy TX2 are classified as "boutique" wheelsets, and likewise for frames you have Co-Motion and Santana.
You didn't have any kind of GPS or computer on the bike to record your race? That would be of some factual proof of course. Kind of a bizarre situation and apparently poorly officiated.
I once set a TT course record, only to have it recinded because I had (so the claim goes) an unfair advantage of chasing down and passing a 4-man TTT who were on the opposite side of the road. They then upped their pace to dual with me for a bit before they blew up and disappeared. The TT ref just shrugged and said I didn't officially get the record because of the perceived advantage. My time did stick for that event though. Go figure :/
BTW: Using the “boutique” term to describe "expensive and custom" bikes and/or equipment is incorrect. Rather, "boutique" = off the shelf, non-custom. ie: wheels such as Rolf Prima Tandem or Spinergy TX2 are classified as "boutique" wheelsets, and likewise for frames you have Co-Motion and Santana.
Last edited by twocicle; 05-24-16 at 07:21 PM.
05-24-16, 08:48 PM
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I happened to be standing next to you (I now realize) while awards were being given out. I heard your competitor repeatedly insisting that they had passed you & you repeatedly insisting that you hadn't been passed. I thought it was weird & kind of needlessly aggressive for him to be taking it up with you, especially how he just kept insisting over & over. I can kind of understand bringing it up once, but if you are obviously as certain as he is about the dispute, why keep at you over it?
But in the end, Im not surprised to hear he protested. He must have already done that by the time he was talking to you, which makes his behavior weirder. Or at least he should have already protested- because I heard someone else get turned away for being too late to issue a protest and this was before I overheard the aggro guy starting in with you.
Totally agree on the pavement thing. I had already done some training rides on the course and knew the pavement was lousy. When I saw the race flyer's description, I was thinking how inaccurate the description was.
Kudos on the win. Don't worry about Aggro Brothers, just go back next year & beat them again!
But in the end, Im not surprised to hear he protested. He must have already done that by the time he was talking to you, which makes his behavior weirder. Or at least he should have already protested- because I heard someone else get turned away for being too late to issue a protest and this was before I overheard the aggro guy starting in with you.
Totally agree on the pavement thing. I had already done some training rides on the course and knew the pavement was lousy. When I saw the race flyer's description, I was thinking how inaccurate the description was.
Kudos on the win. Don't worry about Aggro Brothers, just go back next year & beat them again!
05-24-16, 09:30 PM
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It was nice to meet you, and I think I know who you are. I aspire to be as successful as you have been.
To answer the earlier question, I don't know the exact distance, but some estimates are just under 23 miles and some other estimates are just over 23 miles. In any case, it's under 40k by a little bit. Furthermore, because the first six mile leg has a tailwind and is ridden twice, it's unfairly biased to being a mostly tailwind course (instead of being a closed loop). The exact time we rode is 48:21. The fastest time of the day (single bike) was about a minute faster. It may make a difference to start an hour earlier (less wind), but I don't know when the fast time of the day rider started the race. I think next year I'll make some adjustments to the wheels and gearing, if I decide to do the race again.
To answer the earlier question, I don't know the exact distance, but some estimates are just under 23 miles and some other estimates are just over 23 miles. In any case, it's under 40k by a little bit. Furthermore, because the first six mile leg has a tailwind and is ridden twice, it's unfairly biased to being a mostly tailwind course (instead of being a closed loop). The exact time we rode is 48:21. The fastest time of the day (single bike) was about a minute faster. It may make a difference to start an hour earlier (less wind), but I don't know when the fast time of the day rider started the race. I think next year I'll make some adjustments to the wheels and gearing, if I decide to do the race again.
05-24-16, 10:11 PM
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The course is 23.123 miles to be exact or 37.2k.
I think the wind really picked up just when I was out on the course, so a later start time may well had been a disadvantage. I started at 8:30ish and I guessed the wind was 12 mph when I started and 17-18 mph when I finished. I was getting blown all over the road on leg 4, whereas leg 2 seemed pretty ok to me.
I don't see the double tailwind section as being unfairly biased, though. That's just the course and the typical wind direction. Every TT course is different, right? And knowing the course is part of the game. The course is also notorious for thorns, which lead to flats. Personally I would not race out there on anything but tubeless tires. But then again, I would not race anywhere on anything but tubeless tires, so that's not saying much.
Seriously. Go back next year and beat the pants off the Aggro Bros.
05-24-16, 10:25 PM
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Thanks for the encouragement.
Hrm, tubeless eh? I might have to try it one of these days.
OK I spent a while talking to a person at the awards that told me they are a multi-time national elite tandem champion.
Hrm, tubeless eh? I might have to try it one of these days.
OK I spent a while talking to a person at the awards that told me they are a multi-time national elite tandem champion.
05-24-16, 10:35 PM
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Not me. I rode my first TT less than a year ago.
05-31-16, 11:35 AM
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Nerius, congrats on your win.
The last time trial I did I think was on Fiesta Island about 35 years ago.
My wife and I did one on our tandem in a pretty respectable time for the day.
I always hated them, I am smaller and better at climbing and suck at riding fast on flats.
I think bike racing in general is an arrogant sport and stopped racing when I hit 30 years old but competed as a runner which is much more humble. I remember riding with you a few years ago, I think it was a North County club ride, you where riding a really heavy rando bike.
The last time trial I did I think was on Fiesta Island about 35 years ago.
My wife and I did one on our tandem in a pretty respectable time for the day.
I always hated them, I am smaller and better at climbing and suck at riding fast on flats.
I think bike racing in general is an arrogant sport and stopped racing when I hit 30 years old but competed as a runner which is much more humble. I remember riding with you a few years ago, I think it was a North County club ride, you where riding a really heavy rando bike.
06-07-16, 09:51 PM
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Yes I was likely riding a green steel bike.
I didn't know that they had Fiesta time trials 35 years ago! In fact I think the long loop is only recently paved, maybe twenty years?
Yes, there seem to be a lot of really nasty people in cycling who think they are "at the top of the sport". It's our job to change things.
I didn't know that they had Fiesta time trials 35 years ago! In fact I think the long loop is only recently paved, maybe twenty years?
Yes, there seem to be a lot of really nasty people in cycling who think they are "at the top of the sport". It's our job to change things.
06-08-16, 09:06 PM
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Time trialing (mixed team) is sort of neat. Did a few back in the 1980s.
Had a duo 20 years our junior talking about being first . . . talk is cheap.
It was an out and back TT necessitating a U-turn on a rather narrow frontage road.
We had left 30 seconds before male duo and could see them slowly gaining on us in my rear-view mirror.
At the tight turnaround we had the advantage of a very short wheelbase (60-1/4" inches) and made the turn with millimeters to spare; while the other duo went into the gravel and lost time and momentum.
Such is life!
Congrats on your win and performance!
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem
Then and now photos . . .
Had a duo 20 years our junior talking about being first . . . talk is cheap.
It was an out and back TT necessitating a U-turn on a rather narrow frontage road.
We had left 30 seconds before male duo and could see them slowly gaining on us in my rear-view mirror.
At the tight turnaround we had the advantage of a very short wheelbase (60-1/4" inches) and made the turn with millimeters to spare; while the other duo went into the gravel and lost time and momentum.
Such is life!
Congrats on your win and performance!
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem
Then and now photos . . .
06-08-16, 11:23 PM
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Great recap! It's a shame that road racing seems to attract some really nasty personalities. From the overly elitist attitudes to the masters class dopers. MTB races and racers always have a much mellower vibe and that sort of behavior would get someone laughed off the circuit. Keep charging away and winning with good sportsmanship!
06-15-16, 09:56 PM
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I lived in California a bit the last two years. I'd like to think the masters class doping is concentrated in SoCal but I bet there's a few on Colorado's Front Range too.
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