Well, can I just first off say, "Wow"? Picked up a road bike for the first time 4 years ago, overweight and out of shape. Loved it instantly. And look where it's led me. Lucky me.


I have been racing well of late, PRed my last three TTs and pretty much hitting every number in training. So in a good place going into this State TT and feeling reasonably confident. A 40K TT is just a difficult thing, though, and I haven't done many this year, so you never know.


Then this week, I was watching the race registrations and the people I expected to race with (and know enough that I understand their strengths/weakness) were all suddenly elsewhere. Two aged out of my age-group (really? damn, you ladies look fab, bikes will do that I guess), one was racing a tandem today, one is a cat 1 it turns out, and so on. Only two women besides me in the 50-54 age-group and I didn't know either of them. Yikes, I got a little rattled.


Eventually, I figured them out. Two cat 4 women from a race team out of Aliso Viejo. Mostly crits and road races, with only a few TTs here and there, mostly as part of stage races. Four years of race results to look at. One seemed beatable, I could see her FTP on Strava and I have 15-20 watts on her. She turned out to be my 1-min woman. The other one, though, she looked like she could be a problem- beat me by 2 min at the Santiago Cyn TT last Nov. Just finished 5th in a bad-ass 60 mile climbing road race. Second place in the GMR hill climb TT last year. Those are some good results.


But I parsed her out on Strava enough to figure out that climbing is her thing (the State TT course is flat) and she rides without power or HR. Those facts combined with the crit/road race focus suggested to me that we'd be pretty even. She was my 30-second woman.


Looking at the forecast, I wasn't that happy- no wind (which makes this course slower) and a little warm- upper 70s by the end, doesn't sound bad but I got the fast (ie unvented) TT helmet, in black, and the Belgian (ie kinda of heavy for warmth) skinsuit, also in black. I have zero heat-adaptation right now and generally am not great in the heat. Normally this course ends with a tailwind, 0.6% uphill leg. No tailwind + a little hot for me + uphill + end-of-race fatigue = be careful not to blow up on leg 5.


Weirdness at the start. I showed up 3 minutes ahead of my start time and rode a little in the opposite direction to get in the right gear and all of a sudden they were calling for my number. Starters were messed up as to time and they wound up starting people early (!)- lots of freaked out people. I literally got my second leg clipped in for my held start at the exact moment my count-down ended. Amazingly, I was completely non-plussed by this. Eh, **** happens. But I never got to see the women I was chasing, so I didn't know what they looked like. That would have been very helpful.


Zero wind at the start, although during my warm up I had about 4 mph of wind in the cross/headwind direction. My game plan was to start very conservatively in order to save myself for the end, I expected the 2nd half of this TT to be much harder. The exception being if I felt any headwind, I'd kick it up a notch.


This course is a big rectangle in the desert and you ride all four legs of the rectangle once and then finish by riding the first leg another time- so five legs. I caught one of the women in my age-group who started ahead of me towards the end of the first leg. I couldn't see her number but the kit was from the right team. I didn't think it could possibly be my 30-sec woman, no way should I catch her that quickly. Could it be my 1-min woman? I was trying to think through the start list- who started before us? Faster or slower people? (Theoretically faster- it was younger women and category women, the women 55 and up race a shorter distance and start later) Anyone else from that race team? I couldn't remember. Yes, in the end it was my 1 minute woman.


On the second leg, I could see a woman ahead with a nice TT position and figured that was my 30-sec woman. Don't chase, be patient. Blew past her (nice stuff!) but she was in the wrong kit. I knew from Strava-stalking my 30 sec woman that her race team is a big part of her life, unlikely she'd fail to race in the kit. Turns out I was right, she wasn't my rabbit after all.


I'm looking at my power and its conservative as planned, everything is as it should be. Turn onto the 3rd leg and I think I can see my 30-sec woman- black kit with yellow trim, just like the other one. I'm closing on her. All is well. Don't chase, be patient.


Five miles later, I catch her and can see her number, she IS my 30 second woman. Thirty-three minutes into an approx. 1 hour race, I breeze past her. Unexpected. Is she toying with me? Maybe she's gonna chase me down. I keep to my pace to create some space and then glance back. Nope, she sitting back there doing the same old same old. We're almost to the turn for leg 4 and I am still hoping she'll do the crit thing and chase, blowing herself up. I decide to just stay cool until the next turn.


I turn on to leg 4 and glance back again. She's nowhere in sight. What now? This is when I'm supposed to unleash some fury on this course. I feel pretty good. Ave power still below threshold. I don't feel too hot. Do I go for an beautiful power file but maybe risk blowing up myself on leg 5 if I get a headwind and its hot? Or do I go for the win and just keep loping along?


In the end, I decide I really want the win and the jersey. So I just phoned in the rest of the TT, finishing a few watts below threshold. Totally not what I expected. Final time was around a minute ahead of second place (so she did make up some time) and eight minutes ahead of third place.


Just extraordinary, I had a pretty wacky year on a personal level and this State TT was the only A race on my schedule. Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket. Kudos to @Racer Ex to managing my head through all that and delivering me to my race fit and ready to go. Just gives you tremendous confidence when you know you are very well-prepared and its amazing how much confidence adds to your race performance. Its been a zero-to-sixty kind of experience, working with Ex- pay attention and you will wind up with a level of knowledge that is way beyond your racing years. Just a very fortunate relationship. As I said above: lucky me.