I started the day with a bit of a warmup and really had terrible legs. They just felt like rocks. I let the coach know this and he gave me some chewable vitamin and sugar tablets that seemed to help a bit.
I was on the B squad. We were probably not going to be the faster squad, since only two of us were experienced TT guys (although the other two guys were some of the strongest on our team in terms of power/weight)
It really does come down to TT experience though and doing a TT is not always about power but about managing your effort level. I thought we did an excellent job considering the different characteristics of our four riders. We sort of had a sine-wave going in terms of speed, and it would vary a bit. I found myself having to slowly ramp things up in order to get back to the "slightly above threshold" necessary to make good TTT speed, yet still keep things smooth to protect the legs of the guys behind me.
Sometimes things would surge harder and I'd have to hit it pretty hard once I dropped back and grabbed the last wheel. I felt like I left it all on the course though and gave everything.
We finished 9 out of 11, not the best TTT, but, in our defense, many of the times were relatively close together and we did manage something like 26.4mph average over the 37 miles.
Our A squad lost Dan, who crashed out early and had to finish with only three, but they still did great, coming in with over 27mph average. I think the winners were 28.5 or so.
I would also note that most of the teams had five guys. We were short on men so had to fend with fewer. This is tough in TTTs.
Dan is fine, lost some skin and scraped his face up a bit, but he is ok now.
After the race, even though we didn't do so well and lost our overall bronze (mainly due to our squad getting beat by Long Island in the TTT) I wasn't feeling bad. This was mainly due to being on a big team of great folks who all supported eachother and hung out after the race. We left with happy hearts and thoughts of coming back next year.
It made me wish that my Masters races would be that way. Generally it is just me and Pete. It would be great if we could get more guys involved on the weekends.
Our women's team again were carrying Central. They scored a silver in the event and silver overall! Way to go!
As I have mentioned, I never had the intention of being on the Open team. When I promoted and ran the qualifier, we didn't have enough people to fill the men's team, so I chose to put my name in there as a favor to Central. I knew I was in over my head and would likely be one of the weaker riders. This turned out to be true (although I did put in a valuable TT that indicated I was one of the stronger individual time trialists) and I was not upset to have it happen.
However, I am confident that with one more year of development I should reach a strength level that will make me much more competitive at this event next season. I will try out for the team in earnest next year.
I've been saying it for a while now. One of these days..... I am going to be fast. It's just a matter of time.
When that happens, better watch out.
Just sayin'
You, sir, are already super strong and fast. And you had some awesome #'s in terms of power and speed. I really appreciated you support on the courses too! Thanks for being such an awesome team mate!
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