Greetings Addicts.
I posted about this in the Masters Racing Forum, but I'm still happy about it, so I'm posting here.
Rode my first 20k TT on the new TT bike aka the Grasshoppa on Sunday. I won it, which was nice. But mostly it was awesome because the TT bike has been a huge struggle for me, I could not put out sustained power on it, I fatigued really easily and it was starting to have a negative impact on other rides.
But in the 48hrs before the race, I finally got the new aero wheels on it, tubeless tires and the new power meter with more TT-appropriate gearing. Then the day before the TT, I saw my fitter and we changed saddle position, height and arm pad position. Bingo! I was back in business. At full power (although I didn't realize it until after the TT, it's normal to be slightly down on power on a TT bike and I assumed I would be).
The huge happy thing for me is not so much the win but the fact that I rode a really good time trial, on a technical level, for a newby. I had a good start, a really good turn, nice splits, and very steady power- the ideal is that you ride +/- 10% of your FTP, which is a little hard to do on the course I was riding (overall flat but lots of little ups and downs). I was probably 95% of my time within my power range, you have to really concentrate to do that.
I PRed it in a big way, cut 2:20ish off my previous best, which was on the Magic Bike. It was just awesome. Mostly a big fat relief though because I was starting to feel sad about the TT bike, like it was a huge mistake. Also just feel this huge sense of gratitude, because between my coach and my fitter I am just so far ahead of the curve with this mega-technical TT stuff.
And Oh. My. God. The wheels. Incredible. Aero wheels, where have you been all my life?!
Im thinking with the remaining necessary equipment purchases (aero helmet and clothing) and more experience and riding at a little higher power, the next minute will come off my 20K time pretty readily. After that, its just going to be really hard work to get any faster. Looking forward to it.