Fitchburg Stage three

Back on track, sorta.

Stage three is a time trial. That means aero bikes, funny hats and making an attempt to cram a whole day’s worth of energy into twenty minutes of hyperactivity.

I have been sitting one place off of the Lanterne Rouge in this race and have needed to climb my way back up, so I came in determined to do exactly this. Pain? Forget it. Legs not responding? Screw ‘em. Just “think” fast and ignore the numerous loud sirens blaring in your brain telling you to FRIGGIN STOP!

That was the plan, anyway.

After two hard days I figured I shouldn’t expect much from the tired legs, but all the rest of the hammerheads in this stacked M40 field should be under the same conditions, so they will be slower too, right?

Right?

Um.. right?

Yeah. Jonny Bold was slower than last season. Ten seconds slower. “Only” 28.7 mph @ 18:39. Oh, I can do that in my sleep. Seriously. I can do that while dreaming.

In reality I can do just around 26mph on the best of days in a TT. This was not the best of days. 250 feet of climbing over 8.9 miles and a killer headwind. I managed right around 24 mph even for 31^st place out of 42 remaining riders. 22:10

That should be enough to move me up a few spots on GC!

Well, no. I remain in 41^st place on time. But my power was pretty fair for the third day of racing, only down maybe 6 watts from target. I am somewhat gratified with that.

Pete crushed it. 20:32 for 13^th place. Only his third time ever riding his new TT bike. Go!

One day left.