Originally Posted by
0gravity
I rode 6 miles at 24.6 mph and finished with a time of 14:21. That was good for 9th place out of 12 riders. It was not at all what I expected. I had hoped to do better and complained about the course having 3 U-turns in it and later about the other riders with much more expensive bikes than mine but it was what it was. Overall, I was happy with my first time trial performance.
Everyone else had to ride the same course with the 3 U-turns, and expensive bikes don't pedal themselves - Fabian Cancellara's being the possible exception
There's no point in complaining about those things.
Racing can be very humbling. Before I raced, I thought it would be easy - just go a little bit harder. Then I realized that there were 50 other guys who with the exact same idea... and seemingly cranking it up every lap for the last 30 laps! But every dog has his day. If you stick with it, you're disciplined, you work hard, and you're willing to suffer (and make others suffer) it will eventually pay off. I certainly wasn't the best racer around, but occasionally I was the best racer in my category
on that day. Greg LeMond has famously said, "It doesn't get easier, you just go faster." Hang in there, and good luck with the recovery.