Monday, March 23, 2009

STRUCK GOLD!

Continuing the story. I picked up my new tt bike on Friday afternoon. I'm not saying Jack dropped everything to get me ready, because it didn't look like any other customers suffered from lack of attention, but I took up a lot of his time. Got the bike home and rode it around the loop a couple of times. Saturday morning I drove to San Antonio and warmed up for the first endeavor: 10km time trial. I warmed up on the Roark, then unveiled the Felt and took it for a short spin. Everyone else was shaking their head about the maiden ride being in competition, but I was quite confident of the fit plus the wind was in my face for the tough corner, so I had no worries about over-cooking it.
The bike worked flawlessly and was so easy to ride. The motor (me) had to come up for air toward the end, but I was able to stay on the bars 95% of the time without any neck problems. Oh yeah, my time, in spite of the stiff wind, was a minute faster than last year and about a minute faster than the second place finisher.
I had time to switch the front wheel to the Roark as I got ready for the 20k race. My friend Bill had come in 3rd in the tt, but I told him we would start quick, get a gap, and work hard for a lap, then relax the rest of the way and battle on the last (5th) lap. It worked to perfection. I gapped him on the last lap, but couldn't hold the lead going downhill into the really stiff wind. However, he took the lead heading into the finish and I had a better gear and the Zipp front wheel to get me enough acceleration to take him at the end. Two golds.
I drove home, had dinner, a soak in the tub, and went to bed. Up at 4:30 with a 5:45 departure back to San Antonio for the first race of the morning: 5km tt. This was an out-and-back, with two hills, one of which was pretty long. My muscles were tight and I began wondering how long lactic acid could stay in them. Anyhow, once again I cut a large chunk of time from my previous best and came in first.
I had no business entering the 40km race, especially when the fresh legs of Stanton and Tom showed up. They are faster even without 3 races behind me, so I knew only the bronze would be contested. At the start, they jumped and I jumped with them and within 200 yards we knew the others couldn't catch us. This would be a ten loop ride and I stayed with them for one loop before they left me. However, the lead we had built up on the first loop was sufficient to allow me to not have to push for the next nine.
I have no statistics for these rides. There wasn't time to get a computer on the tt bike, and when I switched wheels, there wasn't a magnet to activate the one on the Roark. I had taken my gps to at least give me some speed readout on the first day, but forgot to turn it off, so ran the battery down for the second day. I had my heart-rate monitor, but somehow forgot the strap, so that, too, was useless.
My head is dancing with the potential of the tt bike. Now I have to 1) Learn how to ride it and 2) Get in better shape, and perhaps get a coach. Oh, and find some races.

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like you have some big plans! Would you like to do a spin class with me when you're here? JC

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  2. JC - I will be traveling with my road bike and hope to get some outside riding done, weather permitting. Spin class would be Plan B.

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