USAC STATE TIME TRIAL CHAMPIONSHIP 2026

 Usually reporting on a time trial race goes: drove to the race, did it, came home.  Mention wind, speed, heart rate and maybe cadence.  Boring.  This time I'll dig into details.

First off, the announcement that the race would be held at all came late, but a pleasant surprise.  After my poor performance at Pace Bend I had hung up the time trial bike for the year.  I immediately got it down and scheduled some days to re-familiarize myself with positioning.  Also after Pace Bend I started working more seriously on leg strength, so at least I had improved in that area.  I had five weeks before the start.  One more thing before describing the day: I was also signed up to compete in the team time trial with my race leader and other teammate.

In the week leading up to race day the forecast varied between 30 and 80% chance of rain in the morning.  As I left the house it was 30% chance.  It's a two hour drive from Round Rock to Hempstead and I was in various degrees of fog the whole way.  I left at 4:45 and arrived shortly before 7:00 and set up my trainer under a canopy at the school a few blocks from the start line.  Check in was quick and easy.  As I turned around I saw the person behind me was Clif, a national TT champion from years ago and a really nice person.  He checked in and then we caught up with each other since the last time I saw him was before Covid.  He hasn't been racing since then but thought he'd give it a try since he just turned 70 and that's when the race goes from 40k to 20k.  

It was time to start my warm up.  Last year was the first time I'd used the trainer to warm up and it went so well I did it again.  Fifteen minutes just to get the legs warm, then fifteen minutes bringing up the heart rate and powering up the legs.  I can tell you now it never rained, but the humidity was close to 100%.  I ended that warm up, loaded everything back in the car and got out the time trial bike.  This was for another fifteen minutes of warming up my neck.  I also applied a liberal amount of Arnicare to my neck to help loosen it up and dull the pain that I knew would be coming.  Then it was time to race.

By being first in my category to sign up, I was guaranteed to be last to start.  Thirty seconds between riders.  Bob was first.  He is also the one who beat me at Pace Bend, the first time ever in the time trial.  Then came his brother James, then Whitney.  Whitney and James are both 80, thus the youngest in our age group.  Whitney is also my team leader and is much faster than me.  I knew I was competing for second place.  Bob had a 90 second head start, James 60.  My last minute words to Whitney were: :get ahead of them quickly and demoralize so they wouldn't go so hard."  Starting behind me was Deb, a new teammate, former national champion, and the only woman in the 75-79 category.  I've known her for at least fifteen years, as we did Senior Games together.  I fully expected her to pass me eventually.  As it turned out, I held her off by seven seconds.

I had a slight wind at my back going out and I kept my cadence in the mid-80s and speed low 20's.  It took a mile or so to bring my heart rate up to 145 (just under 92% of maximum).  When I'm in top form I can hold 90% for the whole race.  I have not yet achieved top form.  I was a little slow shifting to a lower gear at the two-mile mark, where there is a slight downhill, so lost a few seconds there.  Meanwhile, I could see a rider ahead of me and I knew it wasn't Whitney so thought it had to be James.  That brought my confidence up, in that he was less than a minute ahead, thus I was faster.  As we closed in on the turn-around at 6.2 miles, I passed the rider, who may or may not have been James.  It turned out that James didn't navigate the turn well and crashed.  Strava has me doing the first half at 21mph.

Coming out of the turn, I quickly dropped into my tuck and picked up speed.  The wind, still slight, was now coming into my left shoulder.  The next four miles was ever so slightly downhill and I expected to hold speed.  But the road turned rough, like a mini-washboard.  I tried going right, I tried going left toward the center line.  I'd find a smooth spot but that would run out and I be back looking for a better spot.  At the same time, my breathing became labored and heart rate moved up.  I had to sit up out of the tuck and slow my cadence or shift to an easier gear to bring it back down.  At the same time, I noticed the rider ahead of me.  That had to have been Bob.  I estimated at least a minute ahead.  My goal now became to hold that distance for the next four miles.  My heart rate would drop a few beats and I'd get back into the tuck and maybe try a lower gear.  The two mile "hill" came next and I took that fully sitting up, sacrificing some seconds so that when I finally got to flat ground I could hold my tuck and pick up some speed.  The last mile had the HR up to 150, but my power and cadence were somewhat erratic as the finish line approached.

As it turned out, my time was 42 seconds faster than Bob, so I earned the silver medal.  I am concerned that I could only hold my HR for 7 1/2miles.  Strava has my speed for the return at 17.8 mph.  In my mind I'm thinking I could do better, and so I'll adjust my training to see if I can.  But.... Strava has shown me what I've done here since 2017: 

2017-33:55 @ 22.1mph 

2018- 33:46 @ 22.1mph

2021- 36:47@20.3mph 

2022- 35:51@21.2mph

2024- 37:33@20.3mph

2025- 38:32@19.7mph

2026- 39:22@19.1mph

Oh, yeah, the team time trial.   We had a three hour wait before our start time.  A half hour before, I began to warm up.  It didn't take much to work out the kinks and stiffness.  My neck was really hurting.  I applied more Arnicare.  I needed something stronger.  I started moving through the gears to see what kind of power I had.  I had none.  I could muster 13-16 mph.  There were only two teams entered.  We checked the guys on the other team and saw times comparable to Whitney and Willie, in the 21mph range.  In the past, for a three-man time trial, you had to have three and the finish time would be the first two.  This year, you could have two or three riders.  Rather than be a dead weight to drag around, I opted to scratch from the race.  Our team took first place.

SENIOR GAMES AT PACE BEND

 Another year, another complaint about racing at Pace Bend.  This year was even worse, in that, for a myriad of reasons, I'm nowhere close to race ready.  But I dragged my body out there with every intention of just cruising around the course.  The Senior Games runs a one-day, four race agenda: 40K and 20K road race and 10K and 5K time trial, in that order.  Given my lack of conditioning, I skipped the 40K.

My friends and competitors from Fort Worth, Bob and James, were there.  One other racer who can beat me handily had signed up but didn't make the trip.  Bob usually beats me in the road race and I take him in the time trials.  But last year he was hit by a car and just recently returned to the bike.  He and James raced the 40K and Bob wasn't fit enough to continue in the 20 K.  After most of the racers had started their fourth and final lap, jumped in to do a warm-up lap to refamiliarize myself with the hills and how the wind would affect the race.  Shortly after getting on the road, James came up and we rode together for awhile.  When I advised him I was just warming up, he said oh, and moved on ahead.  But I kept him in sight and could tell he was struggling on the hills.  He was my only competitor in the 20K.

Due to time constraints, all the age groups start together.  I lined up close to the front.  The first mile and a half was into a fairly stout wind, so I knew the young guys wouldn't be going all out. Another advantage is getting clipped into your pedals quickly.  If you miss a rotation you will get passed.  I did not and was in the front group, tucked nicely behind a tall rider.  I fell behind on the last climb before the turn, but James was somewhere behind.  I spent the rest of the race checking my mirrors looking for him.  A young guy came past and I latched onto him for awhile.  I worked as hard as I could, but my speed wasn't there.  I ended up about four minutes slower than other times here.  As for James, I found out later that he took the turn too quickly and ran off the road and got some road rash.  Gold #1

For the 10K, it was one lap run in the reverse of the road races.  I stayed on the road bike because of the hills.  Because the races are chip-timed, there was no particular starting order, so I lined up first.  Once again, my best today didn't match previous days, and Bob had recovered enough to beat me.  James was being attended to at first aid.  Silver.

For the 5K, it was an out-and-back with only two climbs so I switched to my TT bike.  The reason I wanted to be first in the 10K was it would give me more time to recover before the start of the 5K, in  which I lined up last.  I was needing much more recovery time than usual.  It was also beginning to get hot.  I felt like I had enough fluids, but continued to drink.  Apparently it wasn't enough.

I was slow off the start, took my time getting into my tuck, and came out of it shortly thereafter.  I wasn't going fast, but after a mile or so, my neck started cramping.  There was no power in the legs.  I finished two minutes slower than my next slowest 5K.  I was resigned to silver.  BUT, James was even slower.  I don't know how, but two minutes slower than me.  I don't know how that happened.  I didn't talk to him about it.  So I ended up with first place.

I am concerned about how I felt in recovering.  Unfortunately, I'd left my heart-rate monitor hanging in the laundry room, so have no data on that.  Stay tuned.

RECAPPING 2025

 A short explanation (excuse) of competitive cycling: we have five year age groups.  Especially in the older groups, one or two years makes a big difference.  This year I am in my fourth year, and mostly competing against fast, "young" guys who have aged up to the 80-84 category.  That said, I'm pleased with my outcomes.

In March I earned gold in the Senior Games State 5km and 1km time trials and 20km road race here in Austin.  Then took bronze at the Davy Crockett time trial in early May, and a week later was first in the USA Cycling State Championship 20k time trial. 

Racing at Nationals continues to highlight my cycling.  Attendance in Wisconsin and Iowa, with R&R in Georgia in between resulted in our Butterfly Trip. 

I had actual competition this year, but still managed two bronze medals and a 5^th place finish the USA Cycling, and a 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th at the Senior Games in Des Moines.  There were twenty-eight guys signed up in Des Moines.

Annually, the State Road Race Championships at Fort Hood signals the end of the racing season for me.  This year sponsorship was lacking and the race was cancelled.  Everyone was disappointed.  Then another organization took it up, but given the short notice wasn't as well attended as previous years.  That is how I ended up in September, racing in Oatmeal, Tx.  I'll spare you the details, but due to logistics, rather than racing 33 miles, the age groups 70 and over only covered thirteen.  I was the only one in the 80+ category, so am the State Champion for another year.  The new sponsors actually awarded jerseys to the winners (as opposed to allowing the winners to purchase one), so I have a new championship jersey to add to my collection.

Constant Vigilance, as Professor Moody would say.  I lost concentration while cycling on a very safe hike and bike trail in May.  At each entrance and exit of these trails are placed bollards to prevent motor vehicles from entering.  I managed to not be looking and hit a pole head on.  That garnered a trip to the ER and 23 staples in my left arm.  Now hardly noticeable.

All of these are written up fully if you want to scroll down.

OLD GUY LEFT ALONE

     Marilane’s recent trip to Europe sparked an internal competition to see how many days of her absence I could go without washing bike clothes.  She will be gone eighteen days and I have ridden fifteen days in a row.  It turns out that I have nineteen pair of shorts (I refuse to call them bibs unless they actually are bibs, I have three of those).  She will be home tomorrow (Wednesday) and I finally washed clothes today.  For those counting, I had three days of bike clothes in the hamper when she left.  I didn’t get the emergency pair from the car. 

First, a breakdown into shorts categories:

Trainer - Old, serviceable but too worn to be ridden with a group (4)

One hour - Old, can be worn in public (2)

Two hour - Newer (7)

Four hour - Comfortable enough to wear on long rides (3)

Skin suits - For time trial races (2)

One and done – Kept in the car for emergencies, very worn. (1)

     Further explanation: when I say old, I’m talking about twenty years or more.  Newer is less than ten years old.  I actually have a new Rapha that was a Christmas present last year.  Very nice.

     I have two sets of gloves I use in rotation.  For this experiment each set was used for a week.  I also have a team set that I wear when wearing the team kit.  Used once.  I had just enough socks without breaking open the new ones that are waiting for old ones to wear out.  Some of the socks are also over twenty years old, they just don’t wear out.  Jersey selection wasn't a problem, I have 37 currently.

     I reduced riding long distance by myself just in case something happened needing assistance.  In using the trainer shorts I didn’t expose myself to anyone.  These were worn in a park while I did various drills or recovery.  I brought out the time trial bike for two days in the skin suits. 

    Marilane usually washes bike clothes once a week.  Until now I had not operated the new washer.  Full disclosure, it took two loads, shorts in one and everything else in the other.  She doesn't get in until late tomorrow, so I'll get in a good workout in the morning.

 

BIRTHDAY RIDE

 I belong to the Royal Academy of Octogenarian Cyclists, a worldwide group of folks 80 and older.  I think membership is 2200+.  We posts our various cycling activities to let others know we're still alive and kicking.  Some of us post when we do our birthday rides.  Most of us now do them in kilometers, but there are a few who can still stay in the saddle for that long.  I hadn't done a birthday ride in maybe fifteen years, until last year, after joining the group.  Last week one of us posted he had done his 84th celebratory ride a little early, and in miles (84).  Plus, his actual birthday is the same as mine (30th).  You might say he "ride-shamed" me.  At least I felt ashamed since it had never entered my mind.  In looking at the calendar, I have things going on that would make it difficult to get in a long ride, except for today.  

To achieve 83 kilometers I needed to go 51.6 miles.  It just so happens I have a 50+ mile ride in my catalog.  It's the Walburg ride, but with variations it goes from 50 to 55.  I left at 7:05am, sunrise was 7:19.  Forecast was cloudy to partly cloudy with a south wind at 8mph.  I can tell you right now, it is always more once you get out in the country.  I anticipated four and a half hours for what would normally be a four hour ride.  One more thing, I usually do this ride on Sunday mornings.

Not a whole lot of cars moving in the neighborhood as I got started, sunglasses in my back pocket.  I cruised through the neighborhood, eventually meeting up with the bike trail.  So far, so good.  Still, hardly anyone riding or running or walking their dog.  Eventually I found traffic.  Boy, did I.  For those familiar with the area, Red Bud Lane north of Old Settlers.  For those not familiar, it's a two lane road and at this time of morning, a steady stream of vehicles.  Fortunately, I had a light that stopped traffic so that I could head north on Red Bud.  I had to pull over at intersections to let cars go by, otherwise they would have tried passing me.  Soon enough I had a bike lane and could breathe easy.  

One last traffic trial, making a left turn.  This was on a road where I dare not get in the left portion of the road.  So, I made a right turn, a U-turn and stopped.  It seemed like an eternity, but we finally got a break in traffic after three or so minutes and I was finally in the country, headed north with the wind at my back.  An hour and a half into the ride and I had a quick stop for a Gu gel.  Fifteen minutes later I made the turn and began the return.  The wind picked up and was mostly a head wind for twenty-five miles.  It was uneventful, other than not fighting the wind.  My Fly-6 camera stopped working about two hours into the ride.  It's old, I might need to replace it.  Or, stop doing long rides.

My estimated time proved correct, in that I finished in four hours, twenty-three minutes.  I made three stops in the last eight miles.  I was really knackered, in that my wife drove past me a half mile from home and I didn't know it.  But I got my birthday ride in and now will collapse in my recliner for the rest of the afternoon. 

TEXAS ROAD RACE CHAMPIONSHIPS, 2025

 This is a long story about how we came to have a really short championship race.  For years the Texas RR Championships have been held at Fort Hood.  This was a brutal thirty-three mile course and I was never young enough to have to do more than one lap.  The race was well run and very popular.  But this year not enough sponsors came forward to fund the race and it appeared that it would go the way of others.  Then three Austin organizations came forward and agreed to do it.  They already put on the Oatmeal Classic, in Oatmeal, Texas.  I'm not privvy to what all had to happen in a short period of time, but a few months ago I received an email announcing the championships.

My elation was short-lived in that the oldest age group category was 40,50, 60+ and they would be doing fifty-two miles.  Bad enough to race against guys half my age, but the distance was too far.  I put it out of my mind.  Then we had the tragedy of one of our teammates being struck by a car,  Because our team is scattered, we couldn't organize a memorial ride so just dedicated an individual ride to him.  Several of us wrote to the race organizer to try to get older age categories included their lineup.  Resources were minimal and they had very little time to make adjustments.  The best they could do would be to give us a two minute head start over the young kids, 13-14 boys, and younger boys and girls categories.  They also limited us to one 13-mile loop.  As an homage, the categories of 70+ and 80+ were dedicated in memory of Tom Hall.  That's how I ended up Saturday morning in Oatmeal, Texas.

Side note: I encouraged my friend, Craig, to enter.  He is 75+ and hasn't raced in fifty years, although he is a ride leader for the weekly Trek rides.  He and I pre-rode the course last Wednesday so had a pretty good feel for it.  All of the hills were done in the big ring.

There were six riders in the 70+ and just me in the 80+.  We introduced ourselves, it being such a small group. I think it's quite difficult to get excited about driving from all over Texas to do a 13-mile race.  Next year they promise it will be more normal.   At the start I quickly clipped in and jumped to third and found a wheel to draft.   We had a quarter-mile slight downhill before hitting a series of inclines.  I thought we were doing just fine until two guys passed us.  Truthfully, I thought I had the fast guy's wheel (Mike).  

I jumped ahead and tagged on to the leaders, briefly.  At 150 my HR was over 95% of maximum and clearly unsustainable.  My hope of it dropping a bit as I drafted didn't pan out and I had to wave goodbye to them.  Not long after, Mike caught up and passed and I once again glued myself to his wheel.  As it turned out, with a little back and forth, I just followed the his wheel for eleven miles.  His pace was slightly less than what I would have liked, but since I wasn't racing anyone in my age group, I didn't feel the need to extend myself too much.  As it was, I spent 55% of the race in zone 4 and 37% in HR zone 5, so it wasn't like I was lollygagging.  Craig and Don caught up and drafted for awhile.  Don moved ahead and Mike didn't have the oomph to catch his wheel and I saw no reason to.  On a few short hills I jumped ahead and made Mike catch up.  My reason for doing it was hopefully to wear out his legs a bit in order to give Craig a chance to out-sprint him at the finish.  As it turned out, I wore myself out and he and Craig left me on one of the last climbs.  And Craig didn't have enough left for the sprint finish.  

The race that started before us was hit by a two minute downpour.  The race after us probably did several laps in a torrential downpour.  I wouldn't know, I was safely sheltered.  Race stats: avg spd 18.2 mph; max spd 30.28; cadence 83/121; 141/152 heart rate.  It was only a 13.1 mile race, but I have bragging rights for another year.

BORING STATS FROM NATIONALS

 The USAC criterium in Milwaukee took me 46 minutes.  The course was more or less a triangle with a distance of .84 miles.  The first nine laps were within a few seconds of 2:34 each.  Then we slowed down to mostly a few seconds either side of 2:38.  The speed stayed either side of 19mph.  Because there were just the three of us in our own little pod, there wasn't a lot of jostling for position.  My heart rate jumped to 152 on the first lap as I tried to get position, then stayed around 148 for the next five laps.  The rest of the race it was around 142.  Strava has my average at 142, so there were a few dips.  In retrospect, I should have been pushing the pace and not have been content at 142.

The time trial was in Sturtevant and only 30 minutes in length.  I averaged 19.8mph with a high of 31.4mph.  My heart rate average of 147 indicated I rode hard the whole way.  Top of 152 came going up the 1% incline for the second time at 24 mph. 

The road race in Lyons was very short.  Only ten miles in thirty-five minutes, since I was pulled.  In that time, over a hilly course,  I averaged 17mph with a top speed of 38mph.  The heart rate average of 136 with a top of 149 indicated I didn't work at my hardest.  I'd like to think I worked smarter.  Power numbers are 138/564.  I used a lot of cadence going up the hills, thus didn't top out very high.